Newsquest, the publisher of local titles including the Lancashire Telegraph, Bury Times and Northern Echo, has passed the 100,000 monthly paying digital subscriber mark across its news brands.
The company also recorded a record in total audience last month, with its websites achieving 187m article page views in August, up 13% year-on-year.
Newsquest launched a soft pay wall on most of its larger local news sites in 2020; last week (four years on) Newsquest recorded 101,109 paying digital subscribers.
Online visitors can typically read up to 30 articles a month before paying, although a small number of articles are subscriber only. A digital subscription, which is typically priced at £4.99 per month,
includes access to all the site’s content in an ad light environment as well as an e-edition of the print paper.
Some of the larger Newsquest sites also now offer subscriber only newsletters. Newsquest’s revenue from digital subscribers is now over £0.5 million per month.
Henry Faure Walker, CEO of Newsquest, said: “The demand for digital subscriptions, which has now surpassed 100,000 and continues to grow at a pace, has exceeded our expectations. At the same time, we’re also continuing to grow our overall digital audience, with 57.5 million visitors to the Newsquest sites in August reading a record number of articles.
“The data further underlines the phenomenal demand for trusted local news and the power of our local platforms which now typically reach more than 75% of local people each month.”
Year to date (January to August), Newsquest’s online traffic is 9% up year on year. In 2023, Newsquest’s audience grew 12.5% like-for-like on 2022. The company’s most visited website in August was the Brighton Argus with 8.9m article page views.
Newsquest publishes over 200 titles across the UK.
