How Star Tribune achieved an 18.5% digital save rate while reducing call center demand

Retention could not depend on the call center alone

The Minnesota Star Tribune is the state’s leading source of local news and the fifth-largest Sunday newspaper in the country. When the pandemic drove a surge in call center demand, the limits of their call-centric cancellation process became clear.

Subscribers often wanted to manage their accounts outside call center hours, but introducing self-service cancellation without a way to address customer needs at the cancellation moment risked avoidable churn. The Star Tribune needed a digital experience that could serve subscribers on their terms while protecting retention performance.

Experimentation turned digital cancellation into a high-performing retention channel

With ProsperStack, the Star Tribune introduced self-service cancellation and built a program around continuous optimization. In its first year, the team ran 15 A/B testing sequences to identify the strongest business outcome, achieving an 18.5% digital save rate.

Exit surveys captured why each subscriber wanted to leave, while conditional logic matched the situation with a relevant offer. Real-time performance data helped the team apply what it learned, adjust the cancellation flow as business priorities changed and continuously refine its retention strategy.

The result challenged the assumption that self-service cancellation would increase churn: the Star Tribune’s online save rate was 10% better than its call center’s.

A scalable retention experience reduced operational strain

The Star Tribune’s Senior Manager of Engagement and Retention said:

“ProsperStack is one of the most important and impactful things we’ve implemented in several years. It’s got the most long-term opportunity to improve important metrics and adjust based on business priorities.”

Subscribers could now engage whenever they were ready, not only during call center hours. By shifting stop requests online, the Star Tribune significantly reduced call center volume and freed staff for higher-value work. At the same time, its retention team gained a measurable system for testing strategies, responding to customer context and optimizing performance as priorities changed.