Case Study: Tribune Publishing grows notification opt-ins to 1 million in 6 months with OneSignal

Tribune Grows Notification Opt-Ins to 1 Million in 6 Months with OneSignal

Tribune Publishing, a major U.S. media company (The Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, etc.), faced the challenge of rapidly growing its online audience and converting frequent readers into paying digital subscribers as digital circulation became a key revenue stream. To solve this, Tribune chose OneSignal’s web and mobile push platform, leveraging its custom prompting, segmentation, and data-tagging features to increase opt-ins and drive engagement.

OneSignal implemented custom permission prompts (initial two‑step then one‑step), a Custom Link Prompt with subscription incentives, and content-based segments/data tags to deliver hyper‑relevant alerts. The results were dramatic: The Chicago Tribune grew from ~35,000 to 210,000 web push subscribers in 90 days, Tribune hit a 250,000 subscriber goal across eight sites in two months (vs. a one‑year target), and opt-ins grew to roughly 1 million in six months and 1.5 million readers overall—helping Tribune scale audience reach and accelerate subscription opportunities.

Tribune Publishing

Andrew Baltazar

Director of Product, Engagement, and Apps