The Times of London, Sunday Times and Twipe are teaming up to develop a so called “digital butler” they’re calling James. According to Digiday, this self-learning algorithm will provide readers with their preferred content in the format that suits them best and gather data for the publisher on what makes readers likely to (un-)subscribe.

“The idea is, if we have hundreds to thousands of subscribers, we should have hundreds of thousands of journeys into the product”, said Alan Hunter, head of the digital at the Times, in the article. James will email subscribers at their preferred time of day with tailored content. Later, the algorithm will send push notifications and text messages with news as well.  Only James’ communication will be personalized; the publisher’s homepage is remaining the same for all viewers.

The project, which has received funding from Google’s DNI Initiative, aims to convert 3 million registered users to paying subscribers.

Read the whole article on Digiday here.