Glossary/Audience data/Audience data
What is audience data and how do publishers use it?
The types of audience data publishers hold, and how it turns into advertising and subscription revenue.
Written by Samhub with the help of AI·Updated 13 Oct 2026·3 min readAudience data is information about who your readers are and how they behave, such as what they read, where they live and when they visit.
Types of audience data
| Type | Example |
|---|---|
| Behavioral | Topics read and visit frequency |
| Declared | Interests chosen in a profile |
| Demographic | Age and household from registration |
| Contextual | The content being read now |
How publishers use it
Advertising
Audiences for direct sales and data deals.
Subscriptions
Offers to readers likely to pay.
Content
Insights into what readers value.
16 pages for publishers, with a checklist for data, programmatic and direct sales.
One place for the data
Audience data is often spread over many tools. Moving from 16 providers to one platform makes it easier to use, cheaper to run and simpler to keep compliant.
Addressability at Stampen Media after moving its reader data into one layer with Samhub.
Frequently asked questions
A publisher’s audience data is mostly first-party data.
The publisher collects it, within the rights readers have under GDPR.
Publishers usually sell access to audiences, not the raw data.
Measure addressability, build a standard set of audiences and activate them.
Related terms
Data you collect directly from your own readers.
Grouping readers so advertisers can reach them.
What you learn about who your readers are.
Turning your data into revenue.
The audience data a publisher collects.
One EU-based platform to collect, unify and enrich your first-party data, installed with one script.
- A walkthrough with your own data
- Built for publishers and media houses
- 30 minutes, no commitment
Turn your audience data into more revenue
Get the Media Monetization Playbook: how media houses turn first-party data into higher CPMs, data deals and direct sales. With checklists for every step.
