Subscription Index: How offerings from The New York Times, Vox, The Washington Post and others stack up

Digiday+ unlocks an edge for media and marketing leaders through a set of exclusive benefits and features. Recently, members have had access to Digiday's Subscription Index. In this series of reports, we examine experience, benefits, pricing and more across a set of publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, BuzzFeed and others. Get a taste of these member-only reports below and [subscribe]( for full access to original research, weekly briefings, reports and guides, member events and much more. [SUBSCRIBE]( cancel anytime [Digiday+ Research: News Publisher Subscription Index]( By Li Lu Even before the pandemic, news publishers were thriving in a chaotic post-2016 political climate. Reader interest in current events was surging, with unique visitors to news sites climbing from 8.2 million in 2014 to 13.8 million by 2020, according to Pew Research. But after the 2020 U.S. presidential election and the rubber-necking that characterized the coda of the Trump presidency, pageviews began to fall back to Earth. With fewer readers to satisfy advertisers – who by the end of the period were already beginning to keep their distance from news publishers for fear of appearing beside brand-unsafe events – and the ebb and flow of advertising revenue made more acute by current recessionary fears, recurring subscription revenue has become more than appealing. It’s become vital. While subscriptions are certainly not a wholly new tactic for premium publishers rooted in print, the challenge of constructing the best digital offering to entice readers to open their wallets is now a near-universal one for many media execs previously unfamiliar with direct reader revenue. [READ MORE]( [Digiday+ Research Lifestyle Subscription Index: Sports Illustrated, Vogue, NatGeo separate casual readers from enthusiasts]( By Li Lu With the recent economic downturn, publishers have seen decreases in revenue from across business lines — and inordinately in ad sales. As publishers readjust their plans for the upcoming year, keeping subscription sales as steady as possible is a top priority. But according to Justin Eisenband, managing director of the Telecom, Media & Technology industry group at FTI Consulting, the average churn rate for publishers increased from 3% to 4% in 2021 and from 4% to 5% in 2022. For publishers rooted in print, specifically lifestyle publishers, this makes their online subscription offerings more vital as readers continue to move away from their glossy physical magazines in search of more content and more benefits. While turning to digital subscriptions to increase revenue is not a new tactic for print publishers, the challenge of constructing enticing digital offerings for readers amid a field of ever-increasing content options and competitors significantly ups the urgency. Against that backdrop, the Digiday Subscription Index seeks to examine and measure publishers’ subscription strategies across several different digital touchpoints to identify common approaches and key tactics. This edition of the research series studies an editorially-selected group of the top lifestyle publications in the U.S. [READ MORE]( Questions on membership options? [Reach out.](mailto:help@digiday.com) [Share]( [Tweet]( [Share]( [Forward]( Digiday Media 85 Broad St WeWork, 17th Floor New York, NY 10004 You received this email because you're signed up to receive email from Digiday. Unsubscribing will remove you from ALL Digiday email. [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](