Digiday+ Research Professional Subscription Index 2024: Publishers tweak subscription, pricing strategies while shifting subscriber benefits

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 offering 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 be grouped into cohorts. This report focuses specifically on 14 companies from our second cohort: professional.
• This year’s index has added two publishers: The Information and Axios.

In last year’s Index of professional publications, Digiday noted the group’s emphasis on strict gating strategies. This year’s findings were no different. One-hundred percent of the professional publications included in Digiday’s Index have some level of metered paywall.

Exactly half of the publications (50%) have total paywalls — meaning they offer no free articles or content. The other 50% of the publications offer some free content, but lock users out of continued access after a certain number of articles have been read, pushing readers toward subscribing. Both of these strategy models essentially force readers to subscribe to continue further with the publication’s exclusive content. Part of the goal of the paywall is to make the publisher’s content seem more premium.

Compared to last year’s Index, none of the publications in the professional group have changed their gating strategies this year.

An important thing to consider is that, compared with other groups of publishers, professional publications offer content positioned as highly useful industry insights and best practices. With this type of content and with industry professionals as their target audience, professional publications rely on the implication that by subscribing to their content, readers gain an advantage over the competition in their industries. As a result, articles from these professional publications are often hidden behind paywalls so that non-subscribers cannot access it for free — and even paying members cannot share it easily. This strategy incentivizes readers to subscribe to stay at the forefront of their fields.

While the professional cohort’s gating strategies did not change significantly from last year to this year, the pricing and member benefits dimension of Digiday’s Index saw bigger shifts.

Similar to publications within the news cohort, some publications within the professional cohort of our Index instituted large price increases this year. To note, Digiday included Business Insider, previously called Insider, in both the news group and the professional group. When calculating the average price increase of each publication group excluding Business Insider, the average increases for news and professional cohorts were 14% and 8%, respectively.

Interestingly, the professional cohort as a whole implemented lower price increases than their news publication counterparts, because many of the professional cohort publications did not change their pricing in general — thus impacting the average of the cohort overall. In the news group, most of the publications that did not raise their prices were philanthropic-based publications that ask for donations instead of subscription fees and offer their content for free. Meanwhile, in the professional group, the publications that did not change their pricing all have gating strategies that restrict content access.

Among publications in the Index’s professional cohort, Business Insider (51%) instituted the largest price hike for an annual subscription, followed by Forbes (45%). While both publications do have a focus on specific industries, hence their inclusion in the professional group in Digiday’s Index, it’s interesting to note that they also include a significant amount of news coverage in their content.

A point to take into consideration is that, while the Index’s news group increased their subscription prices by a higher percentage year over year compared with professional publications, the professional group still maintained a higher average annual subscription price of $223, versus $184 for the news group. This could indicate that publications within the professional group focus on marketing themselves as premium products to justify their higher price points.

However, it’s also worth noting that Forbes’ subscription strategy is different from that of Business Insider. Case in point: Forbes has the lowest annual subscription price among the publications included in the Index’s professional cohort, even after instituting a 45% price hike this year. Among professional publications, Forbes has the lowest entry price for an annual subscription, which allows the publication room to increase pricing while remaining a relatively affordable option for subscribers — a highly valued advantage against competitors.

Another thing to note in regard to Forbes’ pricing strategy is its pricing cadence. Within the professional group, Forbes offers the greatest number of pricing cadence options. In addition to offering standard monthly and annual price options, Forbes is the only publication in the Index that offers a two-year subscription, which comes with a discount. This pricing option allows Forbes to break out the lower pricing on a monthly basis over a two-year period of time, which could help reduce the effect of sticker shock and lock subscribers in for a longer timeframe.

In addition to the several publications within the professional group that increased their subscription pricing, a small handful increased discounts for first-time subscribers. In the news group of Digiday’s Subscription Index, all non-philanthropic publications except one increased their discounts for first-time subscribers.The professional group, on the other hand, was much more conservative, with only three out of 11 publications in this cohort increasing discounts for first-time subscribers.

The majority of professional publications included in the Index did not implement subscription price changes and did not change the discounts for first-time subscribers. The three publications in the professional group that did make changes to their first-time subscriber rates were Business Insider, WWD and the Financial Times.

With Business Insider implementing the largest increase to its annual subscription price compared with the other publications in the professional group, its move to increase the discount for first-time subscribers makes sense to offset the subscription pricing increase. WWD and the Financial Times employed a different strategy.

WWD’s annual subscription price increased by a negligible 0.04%,  while the publication increased its discount for first-time subscribers by 25%. The Financial Times increased its base subscription price by 22%, but its discount for first-time subscribers changed from 8% to 40% off the base annual price. In both cases, the cost for first-time subscribers decreased from last year.

The Financial Times’ and WWD’s first-time subscription price changes this year signal a potential shift in their overall pricing strategies. It’s possible that the publishers cut their first-time subscriber rates in an effort to draw in new subscribers who would then renew at higher annual rates. Of the two, WWD seems the most keen on this strategy shift, as it did not raise its annual base pricing and doesn’t offer a second subscription tier to push subscribers toward.

The Financial Times, however, does have a second, more premium tier. Part of its lower entry price point strategy could be to persuade first-time subscribers to not only renew their subscriptions, but also to get them to up their subscription to the premium tier. After first offering subscribers a less costly way to experience its product and content, the Financial Times can then theoretically push subscribers toward its higher, more expensive tier by offering them access to exclusive content.

The Financial Times’ more premium subscription tier option provides a prime example of how publications within the professional group target industry professionals. The main difference between the Financial Times’ two subscription tiers is that the second, higher-priced tier includes access to its investment column, Lex, and additional newsletters. Lex focuses on in-depth financial analysis of various companies and provides detailed information for investors, making the content appealing to professionals in the space.

On the other hand, the Financial Times’ base subscription tier provides access to standard financial news and less in-depth analysis. By giving readers a taste of basic financial news, those who seek to read more on the topic are able to subscribe to the higher subscription tier to access Lex’s exclusive analysis. And, for organizations that want to provide FT access for their employees, the Financial Times has a separate product called FT Professional (which is not measured in the index) that provides companies with subscriptions, alongside individualized services, such as mining data or access to the publisher’s API.

A notable subscription strategy shift this year involves Business Insider and Bloomberg, which both sunsetted their tiered subscription models. In the case of Business Insider, the move is likely part of a plan to consolidate its products after announcing in late 2023 that it was changing its name from Insider to back to its original moniker Business Insider.

Bloomberg, on the other hand, seems to be shifting its focus on other areas of its business. Christine Cook, who joined Bloomberg as global chief revenue officer in May 2023, hired a new head of event sales to put more intentional focus on that revenue stream. Under Cook’s leadership, a client council was created to produce a more effective feedback loop from advertisers, and the publication has focused on producing more original video content.

It is worth noting that Bloomberg also offers its “Bloomberg Terminal” product. While it’s not a separate subscription tier, it does act similarly to a higher level subscription for financial professionals. Specifically, the Bloomberg Terminal is a software program that allows financial professionals to access Bloomberg’s database and also perform stock trades.

Another notable shift in subscription strategy is Business of Fashion’s new tier, called its Executive Membership. In this year’s Index, BoF is the only publication that added a new subscription tier.

In last year’s Index, the publication only offered its Professional Standard and Professional All-Access subscriptions. The new Executive Membership tier is priced significantly higher than the other two tiers at $1,800 annually versus $342 for Professional All-Access and $270 for Professional Standard, which was newly renamed to Professional Analysis & Advice.

BoF did not change the pricing of its original two tiers, the new tier takes a large step up in terms of pricing. The new tier’s differentiated offerings include live video calls with BoF journalists, in-depth reports, insight-based reports and BoF’s “Brand Magic Index,” which uses AI to rank the top 50 fashion and luxury brands based on their relevance in culture. Based on the features it offers and its significantly higher price point, BoF’s Executive Membership subscription tier is targeted at the audience group the publication is named after: executives and decision makers in the fashion industry.

Among all the Index dimensions Digiday analyzed, the member benefits dimension saw the largest shifts year over year. Professional publications, in particular, made significant changes to their member-exclusive events, both online and in-person. Half of the professional publications that appear in both the 2023 and 2024 Indexes removed member-exclusive events as a subscription benefit. An interesting aspect of this observation is that the majority of the professional publications that pulled back from member events were B2B publishers. B2B here is defined as publishers that exclusively create content about specific industries and do not report on general news items.

Currently, only five of the 14 indexed professional publications offer member events as part of their subscription packages. But it’s worth noting that, while events are becoming less common as a subscriber-exclusive benefit, they are still offered at a public level. Many of the publishers included in Digiday’s Index have held industry discussions or panels as their events over the past year. These ticketed events are targeted at industry professionals with the goal of bringing people together for networking opportunities — a bigger focus for this group than the publications in the news and lifestyle groups.

Rather than holding events only for members, the professional group has chosen to expand events to all industry professionals. One reason for this shift may be that ticketed, public events offer an additional revenue source for publishers. And it certainly seems that many of the publishers this year have chosen to focus only on public events, as opposed to events for subscribers only.

Some of the B2B publications offer subscribers discounted prices for ticketed events, potentially as a way to balance out the shift to public events and to avoid alienating subscribers who valued attending exclusive events. The publications implementing this specific strategy include Ad Age, Adweek, Vogue Business and Harvard Business Review. Ad Age also gives subscribers early access to purchase tickets to its events.

One area that has not changed for the publications in Digiday’s professional group between last year and this year is member-exclusive research product offerings. Even with the addition of two new publishers to the cohort this year, 100% of publishers in the professional cohort still offer research products exclusively for subscribers. By comparison, only 19% of publishers in the news group offer member-exclusive research products.

To emphasize the importance of their research products, publications in the professional cohort often highlight the benefit as a main feature on their subscription pages. Additionally, some of the research products offered by professional publications are only available at higher subscription tiers, such as with BoF’s Brand Magic Index, which is exclusive to the publication’s Executive Membership tier.

Databases are one of the most common research products professional publications offer to their subscribers. Eight of the 14 professional publishers included in Digiday’s Index offer subscriber access to some type of database. Examples include Business Insiders’s salary data, Ad Age’s trends data and Bloomberg’s market data. Having access to third-party databases is often vital to industry professionals as they make business decisions or seek to keep up with competitors. With these databases locked behind strict paywalls and classified as member-exclusive content, readers might be more likely to subscribe in order to stay ahead in their industries.

Other common product offerings for subscribers are content that features indexes and rankings. Both BoF and Vogue Business produce brand indexes. Meanwhile, The Drum gives subscribers full access to its “Future 50” list of up-and-coming executives in specific industries.

While not a member-exclusive product, Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list drives a ticketed public event for the publication. Likewise, the member-exclusive indexes and lists offered by other professional publishers also help drive similar public ticketed events. While professional publications have moved away from offering member-exclusive events, their indexes and rankings offer subscribers valuable industry insights. As a result, they are a main draw for industry professional subscribers.