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The publishing industry faced volatile times throughout most of 2024. The L.A. Times, Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post all laid off staff in the last year. Along with those layoffs, publishers have also been hit by major changes within the advertising industry as a result of Google’s revision to its cookie deprecation plan. Many publishers were prepared to work around Google’s original plan to deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome by investing in alternative IDs and building up their own first-party data stores. Now, some publishers have had to reevaluate their ad strategies significantly.
Additionally, many publishers rely on subscriptions as a main revenue stream. However, some advertisers have been “news avoidant” due to the upcoming U.S. presidential election and overseas wars and conflicts making headlines.
It’s possible that the uncertainty with ad sales could push publishers to look to their subscription products as a more reliable revenue stream. In fact, in recent earnings calls, Gannett, The New York Times and The Wall Street journal announced year-over-year growth for digital-only subscriptions. Gannett, which owns USA Today, reported that its digital-only subscriptions business broke new records in Q2 2024, growing about 22% year over year, and The New York Times hit 10 million digital-only subscribers, with 300,000 digital-only subscribers added in Q2 2024.
Against this backdrop, Digiday’s second annual Subscription Index seeks to examine and measure publishers’ subscription strategies across several different digital touch points to identify some common approaches and key tactics. We start in this installment with publishers who produce news content.
We’ll be expanding the Digiday Subscription Index by assessing subscription strategies across other specific groups including professional and lifestyle publishers in subsequent installments.
The Digiday Subscription Index collects data from a list of publishers across a set of dimensions that describe their approaches to subscriptions. The Index then uses three main dimensions to ascertain a publisher’s offerings and subscription priorities. Dimension scores are used for categorization purposes and do not reflect positive or negative performance, but instead indicate strategies. The dimensions include the following:
- The Digital Threshold Experience examines the layers and sophistication of a publication’s subscription setup and access. Subdimensions include: paywalls/barriers, non-member accessibility, onboarding and customer support.
- Member Benefits measures a publication’s benefits and determines the value offered by the publication after the reader subscribes. Subdimensions include: member exclusives, add-ons/gifts and other perks.
- Pricing and Plans gives a picture of a publication’s pricing structure and plan complexity. Subdimensions include: pricing, plan complexity and payment options.
- As our analysis expands, the Index will look at specific groups that we refer to as cohorts. This report will focus on 11 companies from our first cohort: news.
In last year’s Index for news publishers, Digiday found four basic paywall or gating strategies that publications use for their subscription products. However, in this year’s analysis of news publishers, some publications have shifted their gating strategies. Listed below is a brief description of the strategies and the publications within the news cohort that use each strategy:
- Premium gate
- The premium paywall model requires readers to subscribe to access premium or exclusive content. Non-exclusive content has unfettered access. An important caveat: A publication can determine that all of its content is premium and create a paywall that covers all content.
- Publications with this strategy since 2023: Business Insider and The Boston Globe
- Previously included publication: The Washington Post
- Metered gate
- A metered paywall model allows readers to access any and all content, but only up to a certain number of articles. Once the reader exhausts the meter or reaches the threshold of free content, the publication requires the reader to subscribe to access more content or wait a period of time for the number of free articles to reset.
- Publications with this strategy since 2023: L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune and The Wall Street Journal
- Hybrid gate
- The hybrid model combines the premium and metered models. Publications with this model will have both non-exclusive and exclusive content. Non-exclusive content is accessible up to a certain number of pieces and exclusive content is automatically placed behind a paywall and requires a subscription to access.
- Publications with this strategy since 2023: The New York Times
- Newly added publications: The Washington Post and Vox
- Philanthropic support
- Not a traditional subscription model, but prevalent within the news group, publications following this model offer free articles regardless of a reader’s subscription status. “Subscriptions” are marketed as recurring donations or monetary support for independent journalism and sometimes offer other benefits outside of article access, such as a free physical gift with purchase or ad-free reading.
- Publications with this strategy since 2023: USA Today, The Guardian, Salon
- Previously included publication: Vox
While most news publishers kept their gating strategies the same from 2023 to 2024, two publications did make major shifts: The Washington Post and Vox. In 2023, the publications used premium and philanthropic gating strategies respectively. This year, both publications shifted to a hybrid format that was previously only used by The New York Times. With external factors, such as high inflation rates and slower consumer spending, publications like The Washington Post and Vox are likely looking to expand or more successfully diversify revenue streams.
The Washington Post quietly implemented a hybrid metered paywall in place of its hard gate, allowing non-subscribers to access a certain number of articles — excluding specific subscriber-exclusive pieces — before reaching their limit. The New York Times uses a similar strategy, which allows for increased traffic from non-subscribers to boost ad revenue and impressions, while still offering a paid subscription option.
For The Washington Post, it seems that a total lockout strategy in 2023 was not sustainable. This has been most evident in the publication’s declining revenue numbers and staffing changes. Will Lewis, The Washington Post’s CEO, announced in May that the company had lost $77 million in 2023 and 50% of its audience since 2020. Along with a drop in revenue, the company also announced that Matt Murray, former editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, would replace Sally Buzbee as editor-in-chief of the Washington Post. It seems clear the company is looking for alternative strategies, including testing out a new gating strategy. However, given the lack of an announcement about the gating change and an absence of any mention of it on the publication’s frequently-asked-questions page, The Washington Post is likely still testing the strategy before fully committing to it.
On the other hand, Vox made an official announcement in May 2024 about its new membership program. While Vox is still accepting donations, it has implemented a membership program that gives readers access to exclusive content. At the time of writing, the majority of the site is not gated nor restricted by metered access. Since Vox’s membership program is still in its infancy, the publication is likely working on building up its subscription numbers and, as a result, isn’t willing to alienate its general readership by gating large chunks of the site — potentially undermining its ad business. However, as the program continues to expand the site will likely continue to incorporate more member-exclusive content and potentially gate more stories in the future.
Outside of these two publications, the majority of news publishers kept to their 2023 gating strategies. Only two other publications saw slight changes to the number of free articles available to non-subscribers: The Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune. Both publications use a metered gate strategy, and their changes went in opposite directions. The Wall Street Journal decreased its free article count from four to two in 2024, while the Chicago Tribune increased its threshold from one to four.
Similar to The Washington Post and Vox, it’s possible that this shift could indicate that the two publishers might be changing the way they prioritize their revenue streams. For example, The Wall Street Journal’s move to decrease its free article count could point toward a bigger focus on its subscriptions business, while the Chicago Tribune’s increase could mean it’s looking to increase site traffic to build up ad revenue.
Digiday’s analysis found the biggest changes from 2023 to 2024 occurred in the pricing and plans dimension of the Index — a reflection of slower consumer spending and its effects on the economy. On average, news publications (excluding philanthropically supported publications) saw price increases of 22%. Among the measured publishers, the only publications that did not increase subscription prices from 2023 to 2024 were the L.A. Times and The Boston Globe — interestingly both regional newspapers. The publications with the two highest increases were Business Insider and The New York Times, which increased their pricing by 51% and 47% respectively.
As mentioned in last year’s Index, regardless of the pricing and discount strategy, regional publications’ main selling point is their focus on audiences in specific geographic areas, with content geared toward those communities and an emphasis on targeting a smaller subscription market compared with their national counterparts. Digiday defines regional publications as serving a smaller geographic area than national publications, but a larger area than local publications. In our analysis, Digiday categorized the L.A. Times, the Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune as regional publications.
Another aspect that separates regional publications from national ones is that regional publications have to compete with local papers, many of which offer free access or lower pricing for their locally relevant news content. When up against lower-priced local offerings, regional publications must tread lightly when shifting strategies so as to not alienate their member base.
In last year’s Subscription Index, Digiday found that regionally based publications the L.A. Times, Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune had some of the most expensive base annual subscription prices, only surpassed by The Wall Street Journal and rivaled by The New York Times. Despite the price increases from competitors in 2024, this still remains true.
Within the regional group, only the Chicago Tribune instituted a price increase this year, which bumped its pricing above that of the L.A. Times. Another strategy change for the Chicago Tribune was that it increased the number of free articles accessible to non-subscribers, as mentioned above. It’s possible that, with a price increase and an increase of its free-article threshold, the Tribune could be anticipating that offering more free articles could lead to fewer readers converting to subscribers, leading the publication to try to boost its revenue per subscriber.
Looking at changes to news publications’ base pricing along with subscription discounts for first-time subscribers, Digiday found new subscription strategies in 2024 compared with 2023. Among the three regional publications analyzed in this report, the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune both increased first-time subscriber discounts, while the Boston Globe decreased its discount.
The L.A. Times’ subscription remains one of the more expensive in Digiday’s Index, despite not increasing its annual subscription price this year. Instead, the publication increased the discount offered for first-time subscribers. In doing this, the publication was likely hoping to bring in more new subscribers without losing returning subscribers with a price increase, or driving them to cheaper local competitors.
The Chicago Tribune similarly increased its first-time subscriber discount, but it also increased its overall annual pricing. This year, the publication changed its first-time subscriber price to $1 for the full year for the lowest-tier subscription, making it the lowest-priced subscription for first-time subscribers in Digiday’s Index. The likely goal with this strategy is to draw in a large number of first-time subscribers at the $1 rate and retain them so they renew at the new increased annual price rate. It’s possible that the Tribune adopted this strategy due to low conversion rate, and it’s testing the success of this combined approach as a way to prove the value of its content to first-time subscribers at the low initial cost before auto-renewing their subscriptions at the higher annual price.
The Boston Globe, however, is on the other end of the pricing strategy spectrum. Its standard pricing has remained the same, while the publication’s first-time subscription discount decreased from last year to this year. The Globe’s likely strategy in this case is to keep its annual pricing the same, while boosting its revenue by lowering the discount offered to first-time subscribers. This allows the Boston Globe to keep its positioning as a premium product by sticking to a high price point. To note, this approach also fits its gating strategy, as it is the only regional publication that locks non-subscribers out of all of its content.
As mentioned earlier in this report, the publications with the two highest price increases from 2023 to 2024 were Business Insider and The New York Times, increasing their subscription prices by 51% and 47% respectively. Business Insider had the biggest price increase among the measured publishers, which reflects its positioning as a premium gated product. In our analysis, Business Insider, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post belong to what Digiday considers the national group of publications.
The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times continued to offer some of the most expensive subscriptions year over year in Digiday’s analysis, staying at first and third place in our Index respectively. It’s likely these publications kept to their high annual pricing because they are reliant on their wide range of content to attract and retain subscribers.
Likewise, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal also had price increases of 20% and 8% respectively. The Washington Post remained consistent in its seventh-place spot in Digiday’s Index, with mid-range subscription pricing.
Similar to Digiday’s analysis of regional news publications, when we consider national publications’ first-time subscriber discount changes along with their annual subscription pricing changes, more nuanced strategies emerge. These overall strategies split the national news publishers included in this analysis into two different groups.
In one group, Business Insider and The Washington Post increased their annual base pricing and also increased the discount percentage, or the proportion of total cost, for first-time subscribers. Similar to the Chicago Tribune’s strategy, the two publications are seeking to increase the value of subscribers who renew at a higher rate later on by providing a deeper discount for first-time subscribers up front.
However, one major difference is that the Chicago Tribune’s discount for first-time subscribers changed more steeply than its base price did — its first-time subscriber discount increased by 50%, while its annual base price increased by 25%. Conversely, Business Insider and The Washington Post both instituted larger price hikes for their annual subscriptions than the discounts given to first-time subscribers.
In the case of Business Insider’s sizeable 51% price increase, it could be that the publication is focused on emphasizing its premium content strategy, which is in line with its gating strategy.
The Washington Post, however, appears to be repositioning itself through its new gating strategy and its pricing shift is likely part of a testing phase for the publisher. Since last year, it changed its gating strategy from premium to hybrid without announcement, which could indicate that the company is testing whether it can increase its average value per subscriber, at the risk of possibly losing some, while also increasing site traffic to generate more ad revenue by releasing some content for non-subscribers (as noted in a previous section of this report). This testing phase comes as an adjustment following the publisher’s layoffs. According to a Washington Post article in October 2023, “The Post’s subscription, traffic and advertising projections over the past two years had been ‘overly optimistic’ and that the company is looking for ways ‘to return our business to a healthier place in the coming year.’”
In the second group, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times both increased their annual base pricing for their subscriptions while decreasing their first-time subscriber promotional pricing — in other words, they increased prices for both new and returning customers. While this seems like a bad deal from a customer perspective, the publishers are the only two in Digiday’s Index that offer subscription bundling with their subscription package.
In addition to subscription bundles, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal continue to diversify their offerings, likely in an effort to justify high premium pricing. For instance, in 2022, The New York Times acquired Wordle and rebranded NYT Crosswords to NYT Games. And, in 2023, the company created a new word puzzle game called Connections. By December 2023, the majority of time users worldwide spent within the The New York Times’ apps was in NYT Games, according to numbers estimated by data analytics firm YipitData. Games, Wirecutter, NYT Cooking and other offerings are all part of The New York Times’ bundled subscription options.
Similarly, The Wall Street Journal’s basic subscription bundle includes MarketWatch, Barron’s and Investor’s Business Daily.
As a whole, the national news publications included in this analysis focus on a high-end product strategy to justify their subscription pricing. While one group uses their gating strategies to convey a sense of exclusivity by allowing only subscribers to read specific, or sometimes all, content, another group bundles multiple subscription offerings and sells the bundles at a premium rate.
Benefits for subscribers saw significant changes within news publishers’ subscription strategies between 2023 and 2024. Digiday’s analysis found that some publishers have made changes to or gotten rid of certain member benefits, possibly due to inflation and slower consumer spending, which have made some member benefits harder or more costly to execute. As mentioned above, five of the 11 publishers in Digiday’s Index laid off workers in the last year, likely leaving those companies looking to invest in member benefits that require less manual labor. In Digiday’s data collection for this Index, we found that most news publishers backed away from events-based benefits for subscribers and instead focused on additional forms of content, such as access to data and exclusive videos.
Among the group included in Digiday’s news category, all publications pulled back on both online and in-person live events, with the sole exception of Vox, which recently added online events for its new paid membership program. Events in particular can be a big revenue driver and can also be a draw for subscribers. However, news publications face a bigger challenge with events than publishers in other groups like professional and lifestyle, whose specific topic areas are more likely to inspire ticket sales from subscribers. For example, fashion publications might hold events based on Fashion Week, or marketing business publications might plan something around the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity — whereas news publishers’ topics of content are much more broad.
Putting less of an emphasis on events makes sense especially for those news publications that have laid off employees in the last year, as events require a significant amount of staff participation both before and during to successfully execute them.
It is worth noting, though, that while events are becoming a less common subscriber benefit, they are still held for the general public. Many of the news publishers included in Digiday’s Index held industry talks or panels in the past year. Some of these events were ticketed and targeted industry professionals, and most had a journalistic focus. It’s likely that the goal of these events was boosting publishers’ brands in the public eye, rather than serving as exclusive benefits for subscribers.
For Vox specifically, the level of subscriber interest in events associated with its new membership program will likely determine whether the strategy sticks for the publisher going forward.
Outside of Vox, the remaining news publishers included in this year’s Index turned their attention to exclusive videos for subscribers rather than events. Three of the indexed publications added exclusive videos to their list of subscriber benefits.
Video content does also require dedicated staff, but, unlike with events, video content can be evergreen and, therefore, remain valuable to publishers for a prolonged period of time. Events, on the other hand, exist inside a very short window of time. For this reason, investing in video over events makes sense for publishers who are both strapped for money and talent and who are also looking to boost the value of their subscriptions.
Video content has been on the rise in general and it’s becoming a dominant content format across media, particularly on social media. More specifically, audience consumption of video content has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic, and long-form video in particular offers a content format that could even complement live events by giving publishers a way to satisfy subscribers’ on-demand viewing habits. For example, following the NYT’s DealBook Summit 2023, the New York Times took footage filmed during live panels and published it as separate videos that offer evergreen content.
In addition to evergreen video content for subscribers, some news publications added benefits like access to data, podcasts and app features for subscribers this year in an effort to increase the value of their subscriptions. In last year’s Index, the data access benefit was a unique offering from Business Insider. This year, The Wall Street Journal joined Business Insider in offering the benefit. This benefit makes sense for both Business Insider and The Wall Street Journal, which target professional audiences who often seek out business information and data to aid them in their professional decision making.
However, when compared to Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal focuses on an even more specific subscriber base, targeting professionals specifically employed in the finance industry. Again, The Wall Street Journal also has the most expensive base annual subscription price. By adding these subscription benefits that could be considered more professional, the publication adds further value to its offerings, which could help justify the high price point. This is particularly noteworthy since, alongside Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal is the only other news publisher that also focuses on catering to a professional, industry-focused audience. The Wall Street Journal has leaned heavily into the strategy of offering subscribers exclusive member benefits and diverse article content to justify its high pricing.
