Reach changes tack to prioritise digital subscriptions

Reach plc, the UK’s largest news publisher, has signalled a decisive shift toward building digital subscriptions, reversing its long-standing aversion to reader payment models.

The move follows the Daily Mail successful introduction of a subscription model for Mail Online and The Sun deciding to try again with a reader revenue with the establishment of the Sun Club.

In its half-year results to 30 June 2025, Reach reported a 1.8% increase in digital revenue to £61.1 million, but overall revenue fell by 3.4% to £256 million due to a 4.8% decline in print income.

Despite its traditional reliance on advertising, new CEO Piers North emphasised the need to diversify income, telling investors the company would do more to broaden its revenue mix with a serious focus on subscriptions.

Previously dismissive of paywalls, Reach is now set to pilot subscription offerings later in 2025, with a broader rollout expected in 2026. North acknowledged that the UK’s uptake of paid news is relatively low – around 10% of users compared to an average of 18% in other countries – but said the opportunity was still worth pursuing.

This marks a significant shift in thinking at Reach’s Canary Wharf HQ. North’s new growth priorities – connecting with audiences, accelerating AI and tech and diversifying revenues – now explicitly include reader payments alongside advertising, affiliate and e-commerce channels.

The move follows earlier experiments, including a 2019 micro-paywall pilot at Examiner Live and membership trials at the Manchester Evening News in 2023. Those projects, while limited in scale, provided insights that have helped shape Reach’s new approach.

Reach also reported a 6% rise in page views over the first half of the year, lifting indirect digital revenue – such as programmatic and social – by 9.2%, even as direct advertising revenues declined by 7.9%.

While subscriptions represent a new frontier, North confirmed the company would remain primarily ad-funded for the foreseeable future, with most content continuing to be freely accessible.