The average session duration has risen by roughly a minute, bringing it to nearly five minutes per user, according to Tarun Jain, Product Head.

“Creating these tools internally not only reduced licensing costs but also ensured the products were shaped around editorial priorities from the outset,” said Jain. 

He was speaking at WAN-IFRA’s Digital Media India conference in mid-June in Chennai.

“The initiative demonstrated how collaboration between editorial and product teams can shape AI solutions that complement journalism rather than dilute it,” he added.

NewsEasy: Building a deliberate reading experience

At the centre of The Quint’s engagement strategy is NewsEasy, a suite of features now embedded across most articles on the website. These include summary modules, content highlights, interactive formats, and audio playback – all designed to make reading more accessible, focused, and efficient.

• The In Short feature appears at the top of articles and presents a concise summary that captures the editorial pitch and essence of the piece. It typically ends with a teaser or a question to prompt further reading. Editors review the text for clarity and factual accuracy. While some staff initially expressed concern that giving away the core idea upfront might discourage readers from continuing, Jain said usage patterns suggested otherwise. Readers were more likely to stay and read through the article once they had a clear sense of its direction.
• Further down the page, readers encounter Big Points – a section that lists the main takeaways from the article, including key headlines, supporting examples, and additional context. This feature is designed to reduce fatigue from excessive scrolling while still delivering depth.
• The Question and Answer section, which follows, presents selected questions and answers extracted from the article. This format is meant to draw attention to the most relevant issues in the piece and to guide the reader’s reflection and comprehension.

Interactive formats encourage return visits

To encourage habitual reading and deepen engagement, The Quint offers a weekly quiz drawn from stories published during the past seven days.

Each edition features six objective-format questions and is verified by editors for clarity and accuracy. Jain described the quiz as one of the platform’s most engaging features, contributing an additional 45 seconds to average session time.

The site also includes an audio article player, developed using ChatGPT, which allows users to listen to full articles with controls to pause, skip, rewind, or navigate to specific sections.

The feature caters to readers who prefer audio formats or want to revisit specific points without re-reading the entire text.

These tools are consolidated within a Quick Access Panel located at the bottom of the website.

“Roughly 5 to 6 percent of the audience uses this panel as their primary mode of interaction,” Jain noted. 

The feature was recently placed behind the paywall, positioned as part of the organisation’s broader effort to enhance the value of its subscription offering.

Utility features tied to subscriber value

Beyond reading tools, The Quint has also built several gamified formats to attract and retain users, again using in-house AI development.

The Word Jumble Game, which features multiple difficulty levels, currently engages between 10,000 and 15,000 users. On average, each user spends about 10 minutes interacting with the game.

Another feature, the Keyquest campaign, was launched to ease users into paywalled content. By spending time on the website and interacting with specific features, users can earn a key that unlocks one premium article of their choice.

Jain said this approach was introduced to help explain the value of paid journalism in a tangible way and to encourage exploration of the newsroom’s subscription model.

The Spin the Wheel campaign offered a more traditional incentive – a chance to win a discount. However, unlike standard banners, the interactive format resulted in a 20 to 25 percent increase in conversions. Jain said the format performed better because users felt they had earned the reward.

The site also includes standard engagement features such as “like” buttons and listening options, which complement the more interactive tools.

Balancing innovation and editorial integrity

All the tools under the NewsEasy umbrella have been live on The Quint’s site for about a month. 

Before the rollout, Jain said there were concerns about how opinion writers in particular might respond to AI-generated summaries and highlights appearing alongside their work.

Contrary to expectations, the response from authors was largely positive. Many welcomed the additional context and asked that the features be activated for their pieces.

“Building AI features within a newsroom is not just a technical task but one that depends on trust and cooperation between editorial and product teams,” Jain added, reflecting on the process. 

He emphasised that such tools must serve the journalism, not replace it, and that this alignment is only possible when both sides work closely throughout the development process.