To open the recent INMA Subscriptions Town Hall, Researcher-in-Residence Greg Piechota offered an insightful look at the state of digital subscriptions around the world — providing news media companies with an encouraging outlook.

“We are meeting at a moment when paid online news subscriptions hit a new high globally,” Piechota said, noting the number of paying subscribers worldwide has nearly doubled over the past decade. According to the Reuters Institute’s latest survey across the 20 largest markets, 18% of consumers now pay for online news — a remarkable shift that positions readers as the primary funders of journalism.

Piechota’s analysis of 66 INMA corporate member companies revealed a striking revenue breakdown: Consumer revenue now accounts for 46% of overall income, surpassing advertising at 43%, with other sources contributing just 11%.

This marks a significant reshuffling in the industry and marks the first time in U.S. history that digital-only subscriptions have generated more revenue for media companies than digital advertising. Based on surveys from Reuters Institute and Pew Research Center, the subscription market’s value is an estimated US$6 to US$7 billion annually, outpacing online advertising spend by approximately US$1 to US$2 billion.

“This growth attracts new entrants,” Piechota observed. The subscription boom extends beyond legacy newspapers. Now, television giants including the BBC, CNN, and NBC are launching paywalls, while international brands are expanding into the U.S. market.

“This is what this growth really attracts,” he said.

Looking at data from nearly 300 news organisations worldwide collected over the past six years, he found most brands have tripled their digital-only subscriber base, doubled sales per million users, and maintained monthly churn rates below 5%. Despite that, penetration remains modest, with only 2.4% of households subscribing to a given news brand.

To illustrate, Piechota compared publishers to floors in the World Trade Center: Most are on the second floor, The New York Times reaches the ninth floor with 9% penetration, and Estonia’s Delfi sits on the 25th floor as the world’s best performer. But, with 100 floors in the building, there’s plenty of room for growth.

A road map for the future

Piechota’s mission at INMA is to chart “a road map for the next generation of consumer revenue.”

Through the Readers First Initiative, he seeks to surface global best practices in subscription strategy and has distilled the fundamentals into a simple strategic formula: acquire more subscribers, keep them longer, and increase their value.

The tactics that consistently work include targeting engaged visitors with smart paywalls, offering discounts and extended trials to build habits, bundling products, and upselling renewal offers.

But 2025 has also brought new insights. Piechota highlighted the “hidden link” between subscribers and advertisers: super users who subscribe also generate disproportionate advertising revenue.

At Argentina’s Clarín, for example, just 1% of users — those who are subscribers — produce 72% of total revenue. This finding challenges the traditional dichotomy between reader and advertiser revenue, suggesting that the most loyal audiences drive both.

Around the world, innovation is flourishing. Publishers are expanding geographically, experimenting with B2B distribution partnerships, and diversifying product offerings with day passes for casual readers and premium tiers for professionals. Bundling is on the rise, both with other publishers and with non-news products.

Yet, Piechota cautioned, the industry faces headwinds. Lucy Küng of Oxford University described professional media as “squeezed” between independent creators and artificial intelligence. Social platforms and aggregators divert casual audiences, while AI-generated content floods the Web.

“Sometimes when everything changes around you, it’s a good moment to make a step back and think what actually we know is true, what is actually not changing,” Piechota reminded, then recounted a conversation with Financial Times CEO Jon Slade, who urged publishers to imagine writing a letter to themselves from 2030 and reflect on what they did right. This can help identify where they need to take action now.

“And what Jon Slade wrote was, ‘Make journalism worth paying for. Price it accordingly to the value it brings to readers and focus on direct reader relationships which allow control of price, customer data and disruption.’”

The state of subscription funnels

Piechota also shared fresh benchmarks on subscription funnels, looking at how audiences move from casual readers to paying subscribers. His analysis, based on data from 289 news brands worldwide, found 2025 has been a slower year for news. Median online users dipped 12% year-on-year, and overall reach fell below pre-COVID levels.

There’s no one culprit to blame, he said.

“It is really a slower year in news,” he pointed out. “Last year, we had U.S. elections that galvanised attention all over the world, but we had 40 different elections. We had Donald Trump, who had an attempt on his life. There was a big controversy about Joe Biden. We had the Paris Olympics, we had a football championship, and a cricket championship.”

By comparison, 2025 has been quiet, and casual consumers are increasingly getting their news from social media and aggregators.

“We compete with creators and the platforms, and the video and social platforms refer fewer users.”

Search is evolving with AI-generated overviews, further eroding referral traffic. As a result, publishers are doubling down on direct, known audiences. Over six years, the proportion of known users has increased eightfold.

Despite declining reach, subscriptions continue to grow. Globally, digital-only subscriptions rose 6% in the past year, while revenue grew 10%. The difference stems from price increases: Average revenue per subscriber climbed 15% year-on-year, and prices overall have risen more than 40% since 2019.

Churn remains low at around 4%, better than video streaming (9%) and audio streaming (even higher). This stability underscores the value of engaged subscribers.

Looking more closely at the funnel, Piechota said less than 30% of users encounter paywalls in a given month, meaning 70% never face a subscription prompt. Of those stopped, only 0.13% convert. Maintaining a large top-of-funnel audience is crucial for success.

Fast-growing publishers distinguish themselves by holding or growing total reach, sessions, and heavy users (those visiting 10 times per month). Even modest increases — such as 1% in reach and 2% in heavy users — translate into significantly more conversions.

“Basically, the fastest-growing publishers in volume of subscriptions also grew revenue the fastest,” he said.

The biggest lessons of 2025, Piechota said, provide five imperatives for growth:

1. Grow or protect the top-of-funnel volume.

2. Aggressively expand the known user base to increase addressability and direct relationships.

3. Optimise paywall settings to maximise engaged stops and conversions.

4. Remain affordable to encourage starts and sustain long-term engagement.

5. Engage subscribers to retain and increase revenue long-term.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .