The last of a suite of new features rolled out from July to November 2023 to improve the experience of The Straits Times (ST) readers is myST.

The in-app feature offers several advantages to readers:

• It empowers readers to follow keywords or topics and authors.
• It is designed to allow time-starved users to customise their newsfeeds and get to articles that interest them without having to scroll through all the headlines.
• It gives readers the ease and confidence to return to The Straits Times time and again for relevant news and content that means the most to them.

Why myST?

We built this feature because we want to do more for our logged-in readers. MyST is designed to tailor content discovery for subscribers and registered users who log in when using the ST app.

Some of the benefits of myST include:

• Content customisation: Users can personalise their content consumption to stay abreast of the latest news while catching up with new stories from their favourite writers.
• Subscriber-first: While everyone can enjoy this feature when they log in, subscribers benefit the most with the option to comprehensively track up to 30 topics and 30 authors.
• Sampling experience for registered users: Those registering for a free account can follow up to two topics and two authors.

Building awareness

To get readers to try the new feature, we mentioned myST in on-going campaigns targeting both potential and current subscribers, such as:

• Engagement focus for subscriber-oriented campaigns: Whether via electronic direct marketing or in print, the focus is on engagement to introduce readers to better ways to consume ST content on the app, including myST.
• Soft-sell subscriptions: The campaigns highlight useful features for readers to follow stories of interest and to get a heads-up on premium content from well-known authors.

Initial data showed that readers who stay logged in are interested in using myST, making up about 6% of the total unique users for the ST app.

The average user who interacted with the feature spent twice as much time per session as the average ST app user, and this increase was strongest for those on mobile phones.

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