Reach says subscriptions are funding a return to court reporting and investigations
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Reach says its push for more than 50,000 paying digital subscribers is changing newsroom priorities, with court reporting, investigations and distinctive local coverage gaining ground over page-view chasing.
Reach is leaning further into reader revenue, with chief content officer David Higgerson saying the publisher’s digital subscriptions have changed what its newsrooms choose to cover and how they measure success. Speaking at Press Gazette’s Future of Media Technology Conference in London on 10 September, he said the move to premium paywalls across 22 Reach websites has made it easier to justify time-consuming court reporting, deeper investigations and more distinctive local journalism.
That shift comes against a broader restructuring at the company. Higgerson’s remarks pre-date Reach’s announcement that it would cut about 220 editorial roles and create 60 new ones, leaving a net loss of roughly 160 jobs as it retools its newsroom priorities. In a memo to staff, he said the publisher had to concentrate investment where audiences spend the most time and where revenue best reflects the value of its journalism, with “active engaged time” set to overtake page views as the key performance measure by the end of the year.
The company’s subscription push has gathered pace over the past year. Reach appointed Harry Fawkes as its first head of digital subscriptions in September 2025, underlining how central reader revenue had become to its strategy. The publisher now says it has more than 50,000 paying digital subscribers across its portfolio and is aiming for 75,000 by year-end. That follows the introduction of paywalls on titles including Manchester Evening News, Wales Online, the Liverpool Echo, Belfast Live, Bristol Live and the Nottingham Post, as well as the group’s national brands.
Higgerson said the strongest subscriber pull has come from court reporting, particularly magistrates’ courts, which he described as a consistent driver of conversion. He also said Reach is willing to send reporters to football matches and invest in local sports coverage in a way some rivals no longer do, because that content helps persuade readers to pay. Investigative work, he added, is also landing well in places such as Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Wales, even though it had become increasingly difficult to defend under the old page-view-led model.
The strategic rethink goes beyond subscriptions alone. In September 2025, Express editor-in-chief Tom Hunt moved into a wider leadership role focused on distinctive content and audience loyalty across Reach’s national titles, reflecting a company-wide emphasis on stronger brands rather than higher story volume. The following year, Reach also criticised the BBC’s expansion into local news, arguing that the broadcaster’s digital text coverage was squeezing publishers in an already fragile market. At the same time, Reach says it has returned to audience growth after declines in 2023 and 2024, a rebound it attributed to moving away from chasing the same readers with the same material and towards more varied, engaging content.
Higgerson said the company is now defining each brand around a small number of signature strengths, while also drawing up a list of content it will no longer prioritise, including some trending pieces that have lost traffic as platforms such as Google Discover and Facebook have changed how they distribute news. He said Reach still reaches about 35 million people in the UK each month, but warned that readers are less likely to see its stories than before. He also pointed to continued demand for local news, recalling that Reach saw a 20% to 25% surge in local audiences during the pandemic, and said the group is testing a newsletter-led model for titles such as The Journal in Newcastle and The Southport Visiter. Alongside this, Reach is expanding off-platform video on YouTube, using programmes such as Daily Expresso, the Mancunian Way and All Out Football to deepen audience relationships and support its subscription ambitions.
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Source: Noah Wire Services · Original