As 2024 draws to a close, I thought I would pick out some of the numbers that made an impresson on me this year and what the people involved made of them.
In no particular order:
- £149: the price of the newly launched Good Housekeeping VIP annual membership. Liz Moseley, MD Good Housekeeping/Good Housekeeping Institute: “We’ve partnered with iconic brands and events to build a rewards package that treats our intergenerational audience like the VIPs they really are.”
- 20m: the number of followers the Mail now has on TikTok. MailOnline Head of Social Video Phil Harvey: “Daily Mail’s exceptional growth on TikTok is a testament to the power of the brand to cut through on any platform.”
- £1.2bn: The amount Informa paid to acquire Ascential. Stephen A. Carter, group chief executive: “The completion of the Ascential acquisition, creation of Informa Festivals and prospective creation of Informa TechTarget will establish leadership and scale in all our chosen B2B market segments.”
- £100m: The amount Sir Paul Marshall paid to acquire The Spectator. Former Spectator Editor Fraser Nelson: “We were valued at £20 million when we separated from the Daily Telegraph in 2005. Since then, the magazine market has fallen by about two-thirds but our subscriptions have more than doubled. This 5x valuation increase is, to put it mildly, rare in our industry.”
- 41.4m: the number of unique visitors to the Independent’s US site in September. Geordie Greig, editor-in-chief of The Independent: “I am so delighted that The Independent has overtaken The Guardian and MailOnline in the US to become the biggest British news publisher in America, according to the latest industry stats.”
- 15m: the number of times footage of The Sun’s ‘Never Mind The Ballots: Election Showdown’ interviews were viewed across Sun platforms and third-party social media. Sun Editor-in-Chief Victoria Newton: “We are the only print publisher to host a debate with the prime minister and leader of the opposition ahead of the election giving Sun readers the chance to directly ask the questions that matter to them.”
- 100k: the number of monthly paying digital subscribers to Newsquest’s news brands. Henry Faure Walker, CEO of Newsquest: “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.”
- 250k: the number of subscribers the Washington Post reportedly lost as a result of its decision not to make an editorial endorsement in the US election. Former Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein: “We respect the traditional independence of the editorial page, but this decision 11 days out from the 2024 presidential election ignores The Washington Post’s own overwhelming reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy.”
The next edition of InPubWeekly will be on Thursday, 9th January. Until then, we wish you a very happy and restful Christmas break and a prosperous and healthy 2025.
You can catch James Evelegh’s regular column in the InPubWeekly newsletter, which you can register to receive here.
