Glossary/Reader revenue/Content recommendation
What is content recommendation and how does it work?
How content recommendation works, the main methods, and how publishers use it to grow engagement and loyalty.
Written by Samhub with the help of AI·Updated 13 Oct 2026·3 min readContent recommendation is suggesting the next article, video or newsletter to each reader, based on what they and similar readers have read.
Main methods
| Method | Based on |
|---|---|
| Popular | What most readers read now |
| Similar content | Topics of the current article |
| Personal | The reader’s own history |
| Collaborative | What similar readers read |
Where publishers use it
Article pages
Next reads at the end of an article.
Front page
Personal sections for logged-in readers.
Newsletters
Picks for each subscriber.
16 pages for publishers, with a checklist for data, programmatic and direct sales.
Engagement grows revenue
More pages per visit and more returning readers mean more ad inventory and stronger subscription habits. Recommendations also build reading data that sharpens audiences.
Frequently asked questions
Personal recommendations do. Popular and similar-content methods do not.
They can. Mix in editor picks and popular stories.
Click rate, pages per visit and return visits.
No. Those show paid links, often to other sites.
Related terms
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