Case Study: Neue Zürcher Zeitung achieves 56% increase in time in app with Airship

Neue Zürcher Zeitung Drives App Traffic with Tailored Alerts

Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), Switzerland’s historic newspaper of record, wanted to deepen reader loyalty and drive more frequent visits to its mobile app as digital revenue grew. The challenge was to steer app users toward NZZ’s high-quality, personalized journalism—and convert engagement into sustained subscriptions—while preserving a premium user experience.

Working with Airship, NZZ rolled out segmented, topic-based push notifications, deep links to articles, rich media and user-controlled alert timing. The approach boosted open rates and engagement: time in app rose 56%, subscribers now spend about two more minutes per session, the app sees 40,000 monthly downloads, and most users opt into at least two topic alerts—helping NZZ move toward its paid-subscriber goals.

Neue Zurcher Zeitung

Niklaus Gerber

Product Manager for Apps