By Li Lu and Dania Gutierrez • April 24, 2025 •
This research is based on unique data collected from our proprietary audience of publisher, agency, brand and tech insiders. It’s available to Digiday+ members. More from the series →
This is the Digiday+ Research Data Sheet, a new monthly feature that takes an in-depth look at our survey data in relation to major trends in the marketing and media industries. This month, we look at how publishers are approaching subscription pricing and how subscriptions drive other revenue streams for publishers.
“We are subscription first and all of our brands are paywalled properties. As business products, they command high subscription prices, and we have great retention. As a result, that’s an important part of our business,” Josh Stinchcomb, evp and chief revenue officer at Dow Jones, told Digiday. “It’s also the source of our value in the advertising space because we have largely logged-in consumption.”
Here are some of the highlights:
- Subscription revenue remained fairly stable for publishers through 2024 — Digiday’s survey data found that publishers saw just a slight decline in publisher revenue from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025.
- Most publishers raised subscription prices last year, particularly news publishers, and some price increases were paired with deeper discounts for first-time subscribers. (This is according to Digiday’s 2024 Subscription Index.)
- On the other hand, publishers of lifestyle content kept subscription prices steady in 2024, and many lifestyle publishers reduced or eliminated their promotional pricing.
See this month’s full Data Sheet below for more in-depth data on publishers’ subscription strategies.
Click to read the text version of this month’s Data Sheet.
Subscriptions saw the smallest decline in the percentage of publishers who said they get revenue from that source between last year and this year, dropping only -0.2 in weighted average scoring in Digiday’s Q1 publisher survey.
“We are subscription first and all of our brands are paywalled properties. As business products, they command high subscription prices, and we have great retention. As a result, that’s an important part of our business. It’s also the source of our value in the advertising space because we have largely logged-in consumption. We know a great deal about the impressions and that allows us to target with precision. It allows us to draw insight into what various communities and cohorts are interested in, both from an editorial and advertising perspective. The strength of the subscription business is also a strength of the ad business.” – Josh Stinchcomb, evp and chief revenue officer at Dow Jones
Many publishers increased their subscription prices last year, with the exception of lifestyle publishers
Unlike the news and professional cohorts, the lifestyle group in Digiday’s 2024 Subscription Index only increased subscription prices by 1%. However, at the individual publication level, lifestyle publishers made large price swings in both directions, which canceled each other out when averaged together.
For comparison, the news cohort increased both annual subscription base pricing and first-time subscriber discounts an average of 22%, with the dual goals of reducing sticker shock for first-time subscribers and increasing publications’ revenue by renewing subscribers at higher prices a year down the road. The professional cohort had fewer annual subscription price increases (12% on average) but, similar to the news cohort, increased discounts for first-time subscribers.
Changes to first-time subscriber discounts
Many lifestyle publishers reduced or eliminated their first-time subscriber promotional pricing in 2024. The professional cohort offered deeper first-time subscriber discounts, while news publishers kept their discounts fairly steady.
https://digiday.com/?p=575494
