First-party data, reader segmentation, and connected experiences: With third-party cookies on the way out, social and search referral traffic declining, and user habits shifting fast, mastering these capabilities is increasingly top of mind and importance for media companies.

To understand their readers, build segments, and deliver connected experiences, publishers need an audience management strategy to guide a clear and direct understanding of who their audience is and what they want.

But here’s the challenge: Most publishers today can’t easily access or act on the data they already have, let alone form a cohesive picture. This is largely because their current tools are fragmented.

Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, content management system (CMS) platforms, customer data platforms (CDPs), identity and access management (IDAM) platforms, and newsletter tools (among others) all manage slices of the audience picture that are often siloed.

This is a recurring theme we hear from publishers of all sizes when talking about audience management: They’re stuck in a “Goldilocks problem” with their audience management tech. The tools they’ve cobbled together are either too generic or too complex — and nothing is just right.

On one end, publishers rely on a patchwork of low-cost or legacy tools: a CMS here, a CRM there, maybe a paywall or newsletter platform thrown in. These systems often don’t talk to each other, leading to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and frustration.

On the other end, expensive enterprise platforms promise everything, but they require deep pockets and dedicated technical teams just to run the basics.

Over time, these systems became unfit for purpose, leading to bloated tech stacks that are expensive to maintain and slow to innovate with. The result is a tangled web of platforms that “sort of” work, but introduce silos, friction, and data fragmentation.

What needs to change

To break out of the Goldilocks trap, news publishers need to rethink their tech strategy. Rather than layering on more tools, the goal should be to unify systems around identity, access, and engagement. Audience management should be a competitive advantage — not a burden.

Instead of forcing news publishers to choose between bespoke and bloated, platforms (like our Glide Nexa) should provide a single, flexible layer that integrates identity, subscriptions, entitlements, and audience data in a way that’s scalable and manageable.

A system shouldn’t try to be everything. It should be designed to be the right middle ground — powerful enough to support sophisticated audience strategies but simple enough that publishers aren’t weighed down by complexity or cost. And, with a modular and API-first platform, publishers should be able to plug in their desired tools for newsletters, commenting, and more without locking themselves into rigid systems.

Getting started with a first-party audience strategy

For news publishers looking to build or reboot their first-party data strategy, the best place to start is with engagement. That might mean newsletters, user profiles, or letting readers follow topics or authors.

These small features not only deepen relationships, but they also begin to unlock valuable data — preferences, habits, and behaviours — that can drive personalisation and product development.

From there, layering in capabilities like commenting, user content bookmarking, and progressive data capture creates a richer picture of the audience. With the right tools, all of this becomes manageable — not a tech headache.

A good strategy should aim to:

• Simplify identity and access management for users.
• Make first-party data truly actionable.
• Avoid vendor lock-in with flexible, interoperable systems.
• Focus on engagement and not just data collection.

The clock is ticking

The longer news publishers wait to address their tech stack challenges, the further behind they fall and audiences don’t wait.

Solving the Goldilocks problem isn’t just about tech; it’s about reclaiming control over the audience relationship. And in the current landscape, that relationship is everything.

Now is the time for publishers to clean house, unify their audience systems, and focus on the thing that really matters: delivering great content to the right people, in the right way, at the right time.

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