Digital newspapers are doing quite fine in the UK as the Times and Sunday Times have seen their digital circulation increase by over 20%. Currently over 150,000 readers subscribe to the digital editions only of the two publications and their print side accounts for 350,000.
“The Times and Sunday Times pioneered digital subscriptions and today we can see a solid customer base across every platform, including print,” said Mike Darcey, the News UK chief executive. “Charging for our journalism allows us to invest in our journalism, creating an even better experience for our readers and helping to secure a sustainable future for our titles.”
Emma Tucker, the recently-appointed Times deputy editor, described the figures as “incredibly exciting” for the future of the title. “The paywall was a real challenge for everybody in the paper to get it to fly so this shows a great belief in paid-for content,” she said. “We had detractors [when the Times launched its paywall in 2010] but these figures show you can make a success of it.”
Many newspaper companies are adopting to the paywall landscape due to the runaway success of the New York Times. Thousands of international papers are trying to emulate them to varying amounts of success. The UK has enough people willing to pay for online news that the Times is remaining profitable and increasing their digital subscribers.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.