F.Y.I.

The Australian celebrates five years of digital paid subscription model

The Australian celebrates five years of digital subscription, claiming its content model has been successful in attracting paying readers.

The Australian

The announcement:

The Australian is celebrating five years of digital subscriptions with the model widely hailed as successful for the masthead.  The Australian has enjoyed consistent year-on-year paid audience growth since the introduction of digital membership, with 12 per cent increase in the year to June 2016 (ABC audit total sales June 2016).

The Australian was the first newspaper in Australia to launch digital subscriptions in 2011 and now boasts more than 79,000 paying members on a digital product (ABC audit digital subscribers June-September 2016).  

The Australian chief executive officer Nicholas Gray said: “Digital membership was launched because we believe in the importance of quality journalism, irrespective of the medium in which it is consumed.  We understand that our journalism is of great value to our readers, and that readers are willing to pay for that value.

“Many in the Australian news industry have followed The Australian and launched paid content models – some successfully and others unsuccessfully. I attribute The Australian’s success to our relentless commitment to deliver value to our members.” 

The Australian digital products continue to evolve, from the launch of the Daily Edition tablet app in 2014, the introduction of Newsflash for iOS and Apple Watch this year – making it one of the first Australian news brands to build content for wearable devices.

The Australian Editor-in-Chief Paul Whittaker said: “Digital channels have complemented The Australian and The Weekend Australian products and enhanced our ability to bring stories to life.  Digital gives our readers more reasons to interact with us as we deliver our exclusive reporting, expert analysis and opinion as it happens.”

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