Glossary/Privacy and identity/Logged-in users
What are logged-in users and why do they matter for publishers?
Why logged-in readers matter for publishers, and how to grow their share without hurting the reading experience.
Written by Samhub with the help of AI·Updated 13 Oct 2026·3 min readLogged-in users are readers who are signed in to a publisher’s site or app, so the publisher can recognize them across visits, devices and brands.
Why they matter
| Area | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Advertising | Known readers can be targeted without third-party cookies |
| Subscriptions | Behavior shows who is close to paying |
| Measurement | Accurate reach and frequency |
| Identity | One profile per reader across devices |
How publishers grow logins
Registration wall
Free access in exchange for an account.
Newsletters
Sign-ups that link to a profile.
Personal features
Saved articles, follow topics, comments.
Single sign-on
One login across all brands.
16 pages for publishers, with a checklist for data, programmatic and direct sales.
Measure the share
Track the share of visits and page views that come from logged-in readers. It is one of the clearest measures of how future-proof your audience data is.
Addressability at Stampen Media after moving its reader data into one layer with Samhub.
Frequently asked questions
It varies by publisher. The trend over time matters most.
No, consent for advertising is still needed.
Hard walls can. Gentle prompts and clear value limit the drop.
They raise addressability and power universal IDs.
Related terms
Asks readers to log in, for free, to keep reading.
The share of your audience you can recognize and target.
A shared identifier that can replace third-party cookies.
Matching records to the same person.
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.
