Unique user metrics 'less interesting' than engagement for FT.com

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Unique user metrics are less valuable to the Financial Times than they are to other online publishers, Ien Cheng, publisher and managing editor of FT.com, told an industry conference.

Metrics that show engagement with site content as opposed to unique user statistics are more valuable to the site and to its advertisers, because of the FT's niche focus and audience, Cheng told the Guardian Changing Media Summit.

The introduction of changes to the FT.com subscription system, in October last year, which allowed registered users 30 stories for free during a month, had given the site a new method of measuring degrees of reader engagement, by offering figures outside of free versus paying users, he said.

"A lot of newspaper website brands look at unique user figures. We look at that and are growing in that metric, but that's a general reach number, which for our advertisers isn't as interesting as being able to offer real growth in engagement," said Cheng, speaking in a panel debate.

Such engagement statistics, he said, include page views per user, which had shown growth of 30 per cent, and measuring video watching on the site.

"We can track that on average people watch 80 to 90 per cent of the length of those videos, so we know they are seeing an ad at the beginning as well as engaging with the content," he said.

"Those are the kinds of statistics, when you combine them with demographic targeting that our advertisers are willing to pay a significant premium for."