CDPs for publishers: how to activate and monetise your data

The rise of digital has significantly reshaped the media industry. According to the latest World Press Trends Outlook Report, print newspaper distribution now accounts for less than a quarter of total industry revenue.

At the same time, digital revenues are growing by 7% year on year. An overwhelming majority of consumption (86%) now happens on mobile devices, whether via websites or apps*.

👉 Discover the benefits of a CDP for the media industry. What are the key use cases for publishers, and what best practices help you maximise the value of your audiences? 🚀

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a solution that brings together and unifies an organisation’s customer data so it can be activated across business tools. For media companies, this means consolidating data from multiple sources to build a single, actionable view of each reader or subscriber.

This approach takes on particular importance in the media sector. Before the rise of digital, publishers distributed content through physical channels, with only an indirect relationship with their audiences.

Distribution relied on intermediaries and a volume-driven model. The shift to digital radically changed usage patterns and, in doing so, transformed the underlying challenges.

Like D2C retailers, publishers now interact directly with their audiences through their marketing channels. Audiences, subscriptions, content, advertising inventory: media companies must develop a deep understanding of user behaviour, personalise journeys and monetise their audiences with advertisers.

By unifying data from websites, apps, CRM systems, advertising platforms and customer support, a CDP addresses these needs. Thanks to identity resolution capabilities, data from different sources is stitched together into a single customer profile.

As third-party cookies are gradually phased out and privacy regulations continue to tighten, a CDP helps publishers retain control over their data.

In practice, data is often scattered across multiple tools: website, app, CRM, email platforms, ad operations, customer support or advertising platforms. Acquisition signals are becoming less reliable, and customer journeys are increasingly fragmented.

A reader (or listener) might discover an article on social media, consume content via a mobile app, sign up for a newsletter, and later subscribe on desktop.

From a commercial perspective, pressure on advertising revenues remains high, while subscription-based models are shifting decisively towards digital. Personalisation has become a key differentiator.

A CDP provides a shared foundation. It makes it easier to build actionable segments and activate them across marketing, CRM, advertising and support tools.

For media companies, it is a critical layer for managing audiences, subscriber relationships and monetisation in a consistent, unified way.

A CDP turns publishers’ data into operational levers. It helps them gain a deeper understanding of their audiences, manage subscriber relationships and activate the right messages across each channel.

A CDP unifies all data related to each customer. Subscription status, history, editorial engagement, marketing interactions and channels used are brought together into a single profile.

Teams gain a clear, shared view of their audiences: which content is consumed, how often, and in what context. This insight supports better personalisation and more informed decision-making.

A CDP makes it easy to create actionable segments from these profiles. Examples include churn-risk subscribers, highly engaged readers who are not yet subscribers, premium subscribers, and more.

These segments are updated dynamically and used to trigger targeted campaigns, tailored to the engagement level and potential of each audience.

A CDP allows publishers to tailor journeys at every stage of the lifecycle: onboarding after sign-up, retention scenarios, reminders before trial expiry or subscription renewal.

By relying on actual usage data, messages become more relevant and communications are better aligned with real reader behaviour.

The CDP feeds CEP-type tools with up-to-date data, enriched with dynamic attributes such as interests, subscription status, reading frequency or preferred channel. Marketing pressure is better controlled.

Highly targeted automated scenarios can then be set up, for example:

CDP segments can be synchronised with advertising platforms for retargeting, subscriber exclusion, or lookalike audiences built from high-value subscribers.

Sharing conversion data improves campaign optimisation, ensuring paid media works in alignment with subscription and retention strategies.

The CDP supplies support tools with relevant customer data: subscription status, billing history, channels used and recent incidents. Support agents immediately have the full context, leading to smoother interactions and faster ticket resolution.

A CDP enables ad operations teams to better leverage first-party data and offer more precise targeting to advertisers. It makes it easier to create and activate audiences in programmatic platforms, while retaining full control over the data.

A composable CDP is built on a simple principle. It leverages data where it already lives: in the company’s data warehouse, a technology that is now widely adopted across the media industry.

This modular architecture gives marketing teams greater autonomy while making life easier for data teams. Data is not duplicated in the CDP’s own database, and the data model remains flexible.

Faster to deploy, a composable CDP accelerates time-to-value and simplifies activation across all channels: CRM, email, push, ads, customer support and ad operations.

After deploying early generations of DMPs or “packaged” CDPs, media companies that have invested in a data warehouse are now increasingly turning to composable approaches.

Bayard is one of France’s leading media groups. Its flagship titles include La Croix, Le Pèlerin, Notre Temps, J’aime Lire, Astrapi, Discovery.

Before adopting DinMo, the group relied on a DMP that came with several limitations: audience leakage, limited activation of CRM data, and heavy manual processes.

Bayard chose DinMo to build a composable CDP connected directly to its data warehouse. Teams can now:

From the very first rollout, teams reported significant time savings on the data side, alongside improved acquisition performance.

Other major media players, such as L’Équipe and Libération, also trust DinMo.

A composable CDP has a direct impact on key performance indicators:

Artificial intelligence helps publishers deliver the right content and the right offer at the right time. Powered by machine learning, the CDP fuels content recommendations, adapting journeys based on interests, reading frequency, content formats consumed and preferred channels.

👉 DinMo includes Event Propensity Scoring capabilities. These scores estimate the likelihood that a user will take a specific action: subscribe, renew, upgrade, churn or sign up for a newsletter.

They help teams prioritise actions towards the most sensitive audiences. Messages become more relevant, and marketing resources are allocated more efficiently.

💡 Example : a reader regularly consumes premium articles several times a week but is not yet a subscriber. Their “propensity to subscribe” score increases. They can then receive a targeted message featuring a trial offer and a selection of articles aligned with their favourite topics.

Conversely, a subscriber whose reading frequency drops sharply can be identified as “at risk” and entered into a lighter retention journey, with editorial recommendations tailored to their interests.

A CDP project starts with a clear vision. Define your priority objectives: subscriber acquisition, retention, advertising monetisation or improving the reader experience.

Next, connect your core data sources (subscription system, CRM, website, app) to a cloud data warehouse, then link your activation channels through a composable CDP.

The goal is to launch a small number of high-value use cases quickly, such as:

Finally, measure impact using business KPIs and iterate: conversion, churn, engagement, LTV and advertising revenue.

A CDP helps media companies better leverage their first-party data and manage audiences with an omnichannel mindset. With DinMo, you move faster from data to action, without adding complexity to your stack.

*ACPM report on press circulation and readership