Techniques for delivering relevant news articles to users

At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium configured to store instructions that, when executed by at least one processor included in a server computing device, cause the server computing device to deliver relevant news articles to users, by carrying out steps that include:

• receiving, from a client computing device associated with a user, a request for at least one news article, wherein the request includes a user affinity profile managed by the client computing device, and the user affinity profile specifies:
• a plurality of user cohorts that represents interests of the user observed at least in part by the client computing device over time, and
• a respective user click-through-rate (CTR) metric for each user cohort of the plurality of user cohorts that represents a respective level of affinity the user exhibits for the user cohort;
• accessing a plurality of news articles, wherein each news article of the plurality of news articles is associated with a plurality of server cohorts, and each server cohort of the plurality of server cohorts is associated with a respective server CTR metric;
• for each news article of the plurality of news articles, isolating a first subset of news articles based on intersections between (1) the plurality of user cohorts, and (2) the plurality of server cohorts;
• for each news article of the first subset of news articles, establishing a cumulative CTR metric for the news article based on (1) the user CTR metrics, and (2) the server CTR metrics;
• for each news article of the first subset of news articles, isolating a second subset of news articles based on the cumulative CTR metrics;
• providing the second subset of news articles to the client computing device;
• receiving, from the client computing device:
• an indication of at least one news article in the second subset of news articles, and
• at least one updated user CTR metric that corresponds to a respective at least one server CTR metric associated with the at least one news article, wherein the at least one updated user CTR metric is generated by the client computing device based on interactions with the at least one news article by the user;
• and
• updating the at least one server CTR metric based on the at least one updated user CTR metric to reflect whether the at least one server CTR metric was accurately or inaccurately linked to the at least one news article.

A server computing device configured to deliver relevant news articles to users, the server computing device comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one memory configured to store instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the server computing device to:
• receive, from a client computing device associated with a user, a request for at least one news article, wherein the request includes a user affinity profile managed by the client computing device, and the user affinity profile specifies:
• a plurality of user cohorts that represents interests of the user observed at least in part by the client computing device over time, and
• a respective user click-through-rate (CTR) metric for each user cohort of the plurality of user cohorts that represents a respective level of affinity the user exhibits for the user cohort;
• access a plurality of news articles, wherein each news article of the plurality of news articles is associated with a plurality of server cohorts, and each server cohort of the plurality of server cohorts is associated with a respective server CTR metric;
• for each news article of the plurality of news articles, isolate a first subset of news articles based on intersections between (1) the plurality of user cohorts, and (2) the plurality of server cohorts;
• for each news article of the first subset of news articles, establish a cumulative CTR metric for the news article based on (1) the user CTR metrics, and (2) the server CTR metrics;
• for each news article of the first subset of news articles, isolate a second subset of news articles based on the cumulative CTR metrics;
• provide the second subset of news articles to the client computing device;
• receive, from the client computing device:
• an indication of at least one news article in the second subset of news articles, and
• at least one updated user CTR metric that corresponds to a respective at least one server CTR metric associated with the at least one news article, wherein the at least one updated user CTR metric is generated by the client computing device based on interactions with the at least one news article by the user;
• and
• update the at least one server CTR metric based on the at least one updated user CTR metric to reflect whether the at least one server CTR metric was accurately or inaccurately linked to the at least one news article.