Newsquest says it also recorded a record in total audience last month, with its websites achieving 187 million 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.
According to the publisher, 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 says its revenue from digital subscribers is now over £0.5 million per month.
Henry Faure Walker, CEO of Newsquest, commented: “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 says its 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.
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