New entrants on Press Gazette’s 100k Club ranking of the biggest subscription news websites in the world include in 2026 include The Irish Times Group, Goalhanger and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Press Gazette’s 100k Club ranks English-language publishers with at least 100,000 paying digital subscribers.

Fifty-nine news and magazine publishers from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India appear on the list. Scroll down or click here for the full ranking.

This compares with just 24 titles making the grade as members of the 100k Club when Press Gazette launched this ranking in 2020.

The New York Times (12.21 million digital subscribers, up 13% year on year – but some are only non-news products) makes up 23% of the subscriptions on the entire list of 59 publishers.

Substack now has more than five million paying subscribers to publications on its platform (from whom it takes a 10% cut of revenue) but it has not shared a new figure this year.

The Wall Street Journal is the second-ranked individual news publisher with 4.29 million digital subscribers (up 13%) in the latest in a run of growth.

Other growers included the Daily Mail with subscribers to its premium website paywall up 48% in just five months to 325,000 in July 2025. These included 50,000 in the US, 20,000 in Australia but were mostly in the UK.

Meanwhile digital subscribers at UK regional publisher Newsquest were up 32% in the year to 145,000.

But Newsquest’s US parent company USA Today Co (formerly Gannett) saw a decline of 30% to 1.367 million digital-only subscribers as it revised its subscriptions strategy to reduce churn. See more about this strategy change in its entry below.

Press Gazette’s ranking includes a collective 54 million digital subscribers, up from 44.7 million in February 2025 and 30.5 million in December 2023.

Back in 2020 Press Gazette could find just 20 million paying subsribers to English language news sites.

This suggests growth of 21% among publishers with at least 100,000 digital subscribers in the past year. However some figures are outdated, some have changed how they report, and Press Gazette cannot guarantee comparable data was used for all publishers.

New entrants this year include Irish Times Group (150,000 although this includes print subscribers), Atlanta Journal-Constitution (100,000) and ‘The Rest Is…’ podcast producer Goalhanger (250,000).

Three platforms offering bundled news are present on the list: Apple News+, Cafeyn and Readly. However the figure used for Apple News+, the biggest paid subscription service providing access to multiple publishers, is an estimated UK-only subscriber number meaning the reality is likely to be far bigger.

For the purposes of this ranking Press Gazette does not count “all you can read” subscriptions via aggregators such as Apple News+ in paid subscription totals for individual titles because revenue coming to publishers will be a small fraction of what they earn through direct subscriptions. However, these figures have been added for context where available from the US Alliance for Audited Media (AAM).

Digital news circulation figures provided by AAM have been used in this ranking and can include a range of subscriber types such as e-editions, paywalled websites or paid apps. AAM magazine figures refer to digital replicas of the print product rather than website access.

Not all news organisations with digital subscriptions release figures. CNN launched a website paywall in the US in October 2024 and has only said last week that “subscribers continue to climb and increasingly engage with live content”.

Reuters has also not shared figures after launching digital subscriptions on its consumer website in the US in October 2024 and eight more countries in June 2025.

Others that are new at the digital subscriptions game are known not to have reached the 100,000 mark yet. Reach was at 15,000 paid digital subscribers at the end of 2025 just over a month after its first paywall was launched on the Manchester Evening News, shortly followed by the Liverpool Echo. The publisher is aiming to top 75,000 subscribers this year.

Press Gazette has broken down figures by title where possible but has listed them by publisher where this is the only information available.

An asterisk (*) denotes figures that are more than two years old. We have chosen to continue to include these, even though they are outdated, to give a rough impression of where these publishers may sit on the ranking.

If we have missed your newsbrand/publisher off our list and you have 100,000 or more digital paying subscribers, please get in touch at charlotte.tobitt@pressgazette.co.uk and we will make additions where appropriate.

Biggest paywalled news publishers in the world in 2026:

1. The New York Times Company: 12.21 million

The New York Times had 12.21 million digital-only subscribers in Q4 2025, up 13% year on year.

Of these, 6.48 million were subscribers to the New York Times bundle or at least two of its products.

There were 1.47 million subscribers to the news-only subscription (which is no longer being promoted as the publisher seeks to encourage people to sign up to the full bundle) while there were 4.27 million subscribers other single-product digital subscribers.

The non-news specific subscription products at The New York Times are: The Athletic’s sports journalism, audio, cooking, games and Wirecutter product recommendations.

These figures mean that just over a third (35%) of New York Times subscribers do not pay for access to its core news product.

Last year The New York Times introduced family subscriptions in the all-access and games categories so different users can have their own scores and personalise what they see.

Each family subscription counts as two (one billed subscriber and one additional) in the published data to account for the higher price and the fact at least two people are likely to be using the content. Additional subscribers represented less than 3% of the total digital-only subscribers.

Digital-only average revenue per user was up 0.7% year on year to $9.72 driven mainly by people moving from discount offers to higher prices plus price increases on some long-term subscribers.

Total New York Times subscribers including print were 12.78 million, up 12% year on year in Q4 2025.

Source: Quarterly/full-year results, 4 February 2026

2. Substack: 5 million

Substack announced in March 2025 it had reached 5 million paid subscriptions to publications on its platform.

That milestone was reached less than four months after it crossed the 4 million mark.

Substack declined to share a new figure with Press Gazette when contacted in February 2026.

Two individual Substack-based publications have also been included on this ranking (if you know of any others with more than 100,000 paying subscribers, let us know).

Substack keeps a 10% cut of subscription revenue paid to its publications and creators.

Source: The Substack Post, 11 March 2025

3. The Wall Street Journal: 4.29 million

The Wall Street Journal had 4,289,000 digital-only subscriptions on average in the last three months of 2025, up 13% year on year with growth in both enterprise and individual subscriptions.

Digital-only subscriptions made up 92% of the business newsbrand’s total (4,677,000).

The higher digital circulation revenue helped News Corp business division Dow Jones increase revenue by $48m or 8% in the quarter compared to the last three months of 2024. Digital made up 82% of Dow Jones revenue (up from 81% a year earlier) while digital accounted for 76% of circulation revenue (up from 73%).

Wall Street Journal head of digital Taneth Evans told a Press Gazette event in New York in November 2025 that “scoops are king” when it comes to driving subscriptions growth.

“If we can say something new to people, they’ll come and they’ll pay for it. That’s led to a real kind of doubling down on scoops and exclusives in the newsroom.

“But it’s also our expertise and our analysis. If we can take a commodity fact of the day and tell people what it means for them, that really works for us.

“We’ve done a lot of work over the past couple of years on making sure people know why they should come to us, making sure people know who our columnists and who our experts are, and why they should trust them.

“And we’ve been injecting a little more voice into the journal. Opinion and the newsroom are a totally separate team, but there’s a big difference between adding voice and analysis and authority into your journalism and veering into opinion and I think we’ve really successfully done that, and with great reward.”

Source: News Corp quarterly results, 5 February 2026

4. The Washington Post: 2.5 million

The Washington Post does not publicly share its subscriber numbers but it has reportedly been somewhere around 2.5 million for the past four years.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the Post peaked at 3 million digital subscribers around the start of 2021 following the “Trump bump” of his first administration, but this figure soon fell to somewhere over 2.5 million.

NPR reported that 300,000 people (more than 12% of digital subscribers) cancelled digital subscriptions between 25 October 2024 and 5 November 2024, the day of the presidential election, as a result of the last-minute decision by Post owner Jeff Bezos to pull an endorsement for candidate Kamala Harris.

The publisher subsequently “aggressively wooed” new subscribers, according to NPR, adding on 400,000 people often at high discounts by the end of February 2025.

But that month more than 75,000 digital subscribers were again reported to have cancelled over the announcement from Bezos that the Post’s opinion pages would focus on supporting “free markets and personal liberties”.

Source: Media reporting (mainly NPR), most recently February 2025

5. Cafeyn: 2 million (not all English language)

Bundled newspaper and magazine company Cafeyn has more than 2 million users in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Luxembourg, Italy and Canada.

This means many of its paying users will not be reading in English and it is not directly comparable to most entries on this ranking.

UK and US-based publications that appear on Cafeyn include The Guardian, The Independent, Newsweek and Time.

Source: Press release, 13 January 2026

6. Apple News+: 1.7 million (UK only estimate)

Apple News+, the paid version of the Apple News aggregator, is estimated to have 1.7 million subscribers in the UK. The potential global figure is unknown but Press Gazette has included this UK-only figure in the ranking for a sense of scale.

The estimate was published in an Enders Analysis report, which also estimated that the 50% of subscription revenue shared with publishers would amount to around $136m in the UK.

Enders noted the 1.7 million UK total includes those paying for the Apple One bundle, which includes streaming service Apple Music, games from Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+ and more data storage from iCloud+ as well as Apple News+.

Many major publishers get additional digital readership and subscriber revenue from Apple News+ and other ‘all-you-can-read’ services. These are mostly not included in the figures listed in Press Gazette’s 100k Club.

Source: Enders Analysis, 20 January 2026

7. Us Weekly: 1.5 million

Celebrity and entertainment magazine Us Weekly had a paid digital circulation of 1,509,148 in the second half of 2025 (down 8% year on year) according to the US Alliance for Audited Media.

This excludes a further 11,556 digital readers to the magazine coming through Apple News+, Kindle Unlimited and Readly.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

8. Barron’s Group: 1.42 million

US-based Barron’s Group, which includes financial newsbrands Barron’s, Market Watch, Financial News, Private Equity News, and Mansion Global, reached an average of 1,416,000 digital subscriptions in Q4 2025, up 6% year on year.

Some 94% of Barron’s Group total subscriptions (1,510,000) were digital-only.

In November 2025 Barron’s began to roll out a new premium subscription product, Barron’s Investor Circle, which includes early access to stock picks, enhanced analytics tools, a weekly newsletter and expert Q&A sessions. Availability to

Almar Latour, chief executive of Barron’s parent Dow Jones, said: “’Barron’s Investor Circle’ is an amazing new opportunity for our customers to go deeper and get more powerful insights. Ambitious investors looking for a competitive edge can now tap into the brilliant minds of the Barron’s team even more than before.

“This has been designed with our most sophisticated and passionate customers in mind.”

Source: News Corp quarterly results, 5 February 2026

9. The Atlantic: 1.4 million

US current affairs magazine The Atlantic has 1.4 million subscribers of which half are digital only and half are print and digital (none are print only which is why we have ranked The Atlantic by its total subscription).

This is up from about 1 million two years ago.

Editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg told Press Gazette in February that The Atlantic’s business model is to “make the highest quality stories and convince the readers of those stories to pay you to read them”.

The Atlantic, which has been profitable since 2024, added 50 journalists to its newsroom in 2025 and now has an editorial team of more than 200 people.

After Goldberg’s Signalgate scoop, revealing he had been added to a war planning group chat with US national security officials, The Atlantic added more subscribers in the first three months of 2025 than it did in the whole of 2024 – even though that year itself saw 14.7% growth year on year.

Source: Company spokesperson, 25 February 2026

10. USA Today Co (formerly Gannett): 1.37 million

USA Today Media, the US subsidiary of USA Today Co which publishes the flagship brand and regional newsbrands such as The Tennessean, Detroit Free Press and The Arizona Republic, had 1.367 million digital-only paid subscriptions at the end of 2025.

That represented a drop of 30% compared to the end of 2024. The publisher decided earlier in 2025 that it would face “some pain in the short term” by focusing on annual subscriptions and stop heavy discounting in order to reduce churn.

In October the publisher launched gaming, horoscopes and comics hub USA Today Play, with paying subscribers offered an ad-free experience and bonus features.

Digital-only ARPU for USA Today Media was as a result up 27% in Q4 to $10.22.

These figures exclude subscriptions to UK subsidiary Newsquest, which is included separately on this list. Newsquest saw 32% growth to 145,000 digital-only paid subscriptions.

Overall digital-only subscriptions recorded their second consecutive quarter of revenue growth, to $45.6m in Q4, with year-on-year growth recorded in the quarter.

CEO Mike Reed told investors on 26 February that they had “made a pivot in early 2025 on our digital-only subscription strategy. We felt some pain on volume and revenue from that pivot early in the year. However, we have conviction around the merits of that pivot.

“We saw some early signs in Q3, and those were further reinforced in Q4. Our digital-only subscription business delivered its strongest quarterly performance for the year.”

He added: “We believe the actions we took in early 2025 are creating a more sustainable, predictable, and growth-oriented subscriber base.

“Importantly, we expect digital-only subscription revenues to continue to grow year-over-year, contributing to the overall growth we expect in total digital revenue per user in our ecosystem. We see additional upside through pricing optimisation, leveraging our full product portfolio, including our newly launched gaming hub, Play, and doubling down on local growth.”

USA Today Co president Kristin Roberts added that the launch of Play was “off to a solid start, with early indicators showing audience expansion, deeper engagement, and growth in registrations and subscription starts.”

Source: Quarterly results, 26 February 2026

11. Financial Times: 1.35 million

The Financial Times (excluding other parts of the group) had 1.35 million paying digital subscribers in 2024 and 1.48 million paying readers across all formats.

The FT also measures global paying audience as its “North Star” goal: the number of people who have paid for journalism and other products and services across the FT Group, including via the Financial Times itself, FT Specialist, FT Chinese and those paying to attend FT Live events. This figure was 2.83 million following year-on-year growth of 10%.

A goal has been set to reach three million paying readers by the global paying audience metric by 2028.

Source: Full-year results, 19 September 2025

12. The Guardian: 1.3 million

The Guardian has passed 1.3 million recurring supporters, it announced in September 2025, following growth of 13% in a year.

The Guardian does not charge for access to its website but has subscription options offering unlimited access to the main app, “far fewer” banners asking for financial support, ad-free reading across devices, exclusive features in the Guardian Feast cooking app, and a supporter newsletter all for £12 per month. An £18 per month option adds digital access to the full newspaper archive and e-newspapers and magazines.

The recurring supporter figure includes subscribers and people making making voluntary contributions (for example the subscriptions page features a button to give £4 per month) with no perks in return.

Digital reader revenue (which has “increased steadily” over the past five years and has been the biggest revenue segment since 2021/22) was up 22% to £107.3m in the year to 31 March 2025.

Ole Jacob Sunde, chair of Guardian owner The Scott Trust, said the “reader revenue model is a powerful vote of confidence in our journalism”.

Guardian Media Group chair Charles Gurassa said the recurring supporters are allowing the publisher to carry out an “ambitious long-term investment plan to become more accessible to global audiences and enable them to access our journalism wherever and whenever they wish”.

Source: Annual report, 11 September 2025

13. News Corp Australia: 1.17 million

There were 1,168,000 digital subscribers to News Corp Australia as of 31 December 2025, up 17% in a year.

For its news mastheads alone, including The Australian and The Daily Telegraph, digital subscribers were up 15% to 1,126,000.

Source: News Corp quarterly results, 5 February 2026

14. Medium: 1 million*

Medium crossed the one million paying members mark on 9 April 2024.

Medium members can read writers publishing on the platform without hitting a paywall, as well as read offline on the app and listen to audio narrations.

Chief executive Tony Stubblebine said August 2024 was the “first profitable month in the history of the company” and that this was attributable to its paying members.

In 2023 a higher-priced membership ($15 per month instead of $5) was introduced with “the ability to pay more money to the authors you read”.

Medium has been member-supported without advertising since 2017.

Source: Blog, 9 April 2024

15. Weather Channel: 1 million*

In March 2023, the Weather Channel told Press Gazette it had more than one million subscribers but has not responded to requests for a more recent update.

The Weather Channel provides paying users with an ad-free tier and a premium tier featuring extra weather information and longer-range forecasts.

Source: Company spokesperson, March 2023

16. The Economist: 851,360

More than two thirds of The Economist’s total subscriptions were digital only in the year to 31 March 2025.

The Economist said it had 1.252 million subscriptions, of which 68% were digital only- suggesting a figure of 851,360.

In the financial year, digital subscriptions grew by 8%, accounting for 85% of new starts for the year.

Subscription revenue was up 4% year on year to £244.7m. It has grown 17% since 2021 (£209.5m).

Six months later, by September 2025, The Economist had a total of 1.255 million subscribers but did not disclose how many of these were digital only.

Revenue growth of 4% (or 7% at constant currency) in the half year was “largely driven by growth in both revenue and volumes for The Economist and its enterprise subscriptions business—a sign that the hunger for high-quality, evidence-based journalism grows in turbulent times.”

Source: Annual report for year to 31 March 2025 and interim report for six months ending 30 September 2025

17. Telegraph Media Group: 842,000

Digital subscriptions to Telegraph Media Group (including The Telegraph and lifestyle titles at Chelsea Media Company) reached 842,000 in December 2024 – growth of 22% year on year.

As a result digital subscriptions revenue was up 18% year on year in 2024 to £81.1m.

Total subscriptions were up 5% in the year to 1,086,000.

Chief executive Anna Jones said the business was “on track” for year-on-year growth in digital subscribers of 19% by the end of December 2025.

She said the growth shows “quality and authoritative journalism underpins the success of the business”.

Source: 2024 full-year results, 6 November 2025

18. Immediate: 800,000

UK magazine publisher Immediate has 800,000 digital-only subscribers across its portfolio and 1.23 million total print and digital subscribers.

This includes food tracking and nutrition app Nutracheck which was acquired by Immediate in 2022, the Good Food app and Radio Times: What to Watch app, and digital subscribers to the paywalled websites of History Extra and Gardeners’ World Magazine.

In 2025, Immediate heavily invested in new subscription technology, modernising its audience subscriptions platform and digital marketing capabilities to continue its growth.

Immediate’s digital subscribers grew by 7% in just under a year (Press Gazette last reported it had 745,000 in May 2025).

Source: Company spokesperson, 4 March 2026

19. Bloomberg Media: 707,000

Bloomberg Media has more than 707,000 paying subscribers following double-digit growth in 2025 attributed to “improvements in pricing and retention”.

Chief executive Karen Saltser said: “The big investment we made beginning in the summer of 2024 – focused on the pillars of editorial, product and engineering and sales and marketing – has built a base that is more loyal, active and valuable over time.”

Subscriptions revenue was up 10% year on year in 2025, Bloomberg Media’s second biggest growth area behind live event sponsorships (up 30%).

In February Bloomberg launched a single destination on its website and app for all of its live and on-demand video and made some of this content subscriber-only for the first time.

Bloomberg previously counted the total number of seats (so potential users) in enterprise subscriptions as part of its total but since 2025 only includes active/activated subscribers.

This figure covers subscribers to Bloomberg.com, which launched a paywall in May 2018, and does not include subscriptions to data analytics and trading platform Bloomberg Terminals (which is listed in this ranking separately).

Source: Press release, 4 February 2026

20. The Times and Sunday Times: 659,000

The News Corp-owned Times, Sunday Times and TLS (Times Literary Supplement) had 659,000 digital subscribers at the end of 2025, up 7% compared to a year earlier.

The Times and Sunday Times costs £30 a month for unlimited access across an unlimited number of devices with three bonus accounts to share. A basic digital subscription with smartphone-only access on one device costs £20 a month. Meanwhile TLS costs £6.99 for full digital-only access.

Source: News Corp quarterly results, 5 February 2026

21. Mint: 648,000

Indian English-language business newspaper Mint had 648,000 paying premium readers in October 2024.

Mint offers ad-lite access to unlimited premium articles for £50 a year, or £60 in a package including The Wall Street Journal.

Source: Mint, 29 November 2024

22. People: 622,844

People magazine, the flagship publication at People Inc (formerly Dotdash Meredith) had 622,844 paying subscribers to its digital issue in the second half of 2025.

It also had a further 111,727 digital readers on bundle services, mainly on Apple News+ (78,253) but also Kindle Unlimited and Readly.

Unusually for this ranking People does not have a website paywall and launched a free app in 2025.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

23. Lee Enterprises: 609,000

Lee Enterprises, which publishes regional newsbrands in mid-sized markets in 24 US states, had 609,000 digital subscribers as of December 2025.

Its digital subscriptions revenue was up 5% in the final three months of 2025.

The publisher said it had made “targeted investments in personalisation, content delivery and lifecycle marketing” and had put up prices for “highly engaged” digital-only subscribers.

Source: Quarterly results, 10 February 2026

24. The New Yorker: 567,080

The New Yorker’s digital paid subscriptions were up 21% in a year to 567,080 in the six months to September 2025.

It had an additional 53,905 readers paying for ‘all you can read’ services.

The New Yorker still had more paying subscribers in print: 670,547.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 30 September 2025

25. Nine Publishing: 516,000 (not all digital only)

Nine Publishing in Australia had more than 516,000 subscribers at the end of 2025 but did not share how many of these were digital only. This subscriber count was up 3.2% compared to a year earlier.

“Increases in digital subscriber volumes and ARPU at The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review more than offset the decline in print subscriptions, with overall subscription revenue growth of 12%”, the company said.

Revenue growth of 2% and EBITDA growth of 7% in Nine Publishing’s news masthead business “was underpinned by digital subscription revenue growth of 17%”.

Source: Nine Entertainment half-year results, 24 February 2026

26. Which?: 461,126

UK consumer magazine brand Which? currently has 461,126 digital subscribers.

This is down 2% compared to Press Gazette’s last ranking just over a year ago in February 2025.

In December 2023 Which? was on approximately 500,000.

Subscriptions revenue makes up the main income stream for Which?.

A digital subscription provides full access to all product reviews, the Which? app, digital editions of the flagship magazine and the Which? Car Guide, and personalised buying advice.

Source: Company spokesperson, 10 March 2026

27. Readly: 427,000 (not all English language)

Sweden-based ‘all you can read’ newspaper and magazine bundle service Readly had 427,000 full-paying subscribers in Q3 2025, up 2.7% compared to the same period in 2024.

Readly CEO Johan Adalberth said subscriber growth “contributes to an increasing and long-term source of revenue for the industry and ensures that Readly supports the spread of quality journalism”.

Readly’s peak subscriber count was 478,000 in Q4 2021.

Readly offers 8,200 magazines and 360 newspapers in 17 languages to subscribers in 50 countries.

Cafeyn has agreed a deal to buy the non-Nordic businesses of Readly from Bonnier. The merger has yet to be completed.

Source: Quarterly results, 14 October 2025

28. Time: 369,946

Time magazine’s paid digital subscriptions were up 116% in a year to 369,946 according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

These exclude 28,368 digital readers via Apple News+.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

29. Vogue: 357,244

The US edition of Conde Nast flagship fashion magazine Vogue had 357,244 digital subscriptions in the second half of 2025 – up 133% compared to the first half of 2024. This excludes 20,456 digital readers through Apple News+ (down 83%).

Unlimited access to Vogue.com and its app costs $36 a year after a trial period.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

30. Vanity Fair: 338,365

The US edition of Conde Nast culture and fashion magazine Vanity Fair had 338,365 digital subscriptions in the second half of 2025 (up 89% compared to the first half of 2024), excluding a further digital readership of 76,195 through Apple News+.

Vanity Fair’s new editorial director Mark Guiducci said in August last year the brand was moving “away from news aggregation, reviews, and trade coverage” and putting more focus “on the intersections between Vanity Fair’s core subjects — Hollywood, the arts, money, politics, and style — in modern ways, from newsletters to TikTok to new platforms that don’t yet exist”.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

31. National Geographic: 326,422

The US edition of National Geographic magazine had 326,422 individual digital subscriptions in the six months to 31 December 2025 (no change year on year). This excludes a circulation of 58,960 through ‘all you can read’ services.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

32. Bloomberg Terminals: 325,000*

There are around 325,000 subscribers to financial technology information tool Bloomberg Terminals.

These include many decision-makers in business and finance. The same subscription number has been widely reported for many years.

This is separate from Bloomberg Media’s subscription figure.

Source: Bloomberg, 2 August 2023

33. Daily Mail: 325,000

The Daily Mail said it had 325,000 paying digital subscribers globally to its DailyMail+ premium paywall in July 2025.

These included 50,000 in the US (where it launched in February 2025) and 20,000 in Australia (launched in October 2024) but were mostly in the UK. DailyMail+ initially launched only in the UK in January 2024 and reached 100,000 subscribers there in November that year.

Since DailyMail+ launched, most news on the Daily Mail website remains free but certain stories from core verticals including royals, showbiz, sport, health and money.

The Daily Mail has set a target of reaching one million digital subscribers by October 2028.

Daily Mail publisher DMG Media also owns The i Paper and New Scientist which are subscription based but do not publish their figures.

Source: Company spokesperson/Press Gazette, 29 July 2025

34. Wired: 315,502

Conde Nast-owned tech and culture magazine Wired had 315,502 paid digital subscriptions in the second half of 2025, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

In the first nine months of 2025, according to Adweek, subscription starts were up 94% compared to the year before.

In July 2025 Wired editor-in-chief Katie Drummond told readers it had created a “new subscription offering that we think is more dynamic, more engaging, and more valuable” with five new subscriber-only newsletters, audio versions of articles, livestream Q&As with journalists and access to comment sections.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

35. New York Magazine: 310,364

Vox Media-owned New York Magazine has 310,364 paying digital subscribers, up 41% year on year. This excludes 80,495 readers who pay for bundle platforms like Apple News+.

A digital-only subscription to New York Magazine, which costs $70 per year, includes unlimited access to the website and app and its sub-brands including The Cut, Vulture and Intelligencer plus subscriber-only newsletters, access to screenings and discounts.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

36. Business Insider: 300,000*

Axel Springer-owned Business Insider had 330,000 subscriptions in November 2023. A spokesperson declined to share a more recent figure.

In 2024 the site implemented a smart paywall which it said increased subscription conversions by 75% compared to its legacy paywall.

But in the last quarter of 2025 it reportedly temporarily eased the paywall on a large portion of its site.

The subscriber number includes research and intelligence product Emarketer (formerly Insider Intelligence).

Source: Company spokesperson, November 2023

37. Rolling Stone: 299,899

Music and culture magazine Rolling Stone had a paid digital readership of 299,899 in the second half of 2025.

It had an additional paid bundle readership of 35,052, mostly via Apple News+ but also on Readly.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

38. GQ: 264,308

Conde Nast-owned men’s brand GQ had a paying digital subscriber base of 264,308 in the six months to 31 December 2025. A further 19,924 people indirectly paid to read its content through an ‘all you can read’ service like Apple News+.

GQ, which has a website paywall, announced in February its print magazine is going down from eight to six issues per year as it becomes “heavier than it’s been in a generation, with thicker, higher-quality paper stock, and many more pages per issue”, outgoing global editorial director Will Welch told readers.

Welch said: “Across all our platforms, GQ is publishing far more content than we ever have before. In the always-on era of digital-first publishing, the ‘frequency’ of GQ is, well, minute by minute. We are literally never not publishing.

“In that environment, I think it’s less important how often we show up in your mailbox in print, and more important how we show up.

“If GQ is the ultimate arbiter of luxury and taste, shouldn’t the experience of reading GQ itself feel luxurious?”

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

39. The Boston Globe: 260,500

Boston Globe Media CEO Linda Henry told staff in December 2025 the news title had a paid digital circulation of 260,500 according to a report by Dan Kennedy’s Media Nation.

Kennedy pointed out this means The Boston Globe’s paid digital circulation is “essentially unchanged” from autumn 2024 just over a year earlier, when it was 261,000.

Chief commercial officer Kayvan Salmanpour told Press Gazette in October 2024 about the publication’s digital subscriptions journey including the decision not to lift its paywall for the Covid-19 pandemic (the Globe also runs a free website, Boston.com).

He said this was when the Globe saw “real growth in subscriptions… in hindsight a lot of other media companies mentioned to us that they wished they had done the same.”

Source: Media Nation by Dan Kennedy, 10 December 2025

40. Goalhanger: 250,000

The production company behind huge podcasts including The Rest is Politics, The Rest is Football and The Rest is History crossed 250,000 paying members at the start of 2026.

The average subscriber pays £60 per year (split roughly 50/50 by monthly and annual payments) for benefits including ad-free listening, early access to shows and bonus content. This equates to annual subscriber income of around £15m per year.

Other subscriber benefits include email newsletters, early access to live show tickets and members-only chatrooms on Discord.

Memberships are live on eight out of 14 Goalhanger shows: The Rest Is History, The Rest Is Politics, The Rest Is Politics: US, The Rest Is Entertainment, Empire, We Have Ways of Making You Talk, The Rest Is Classified, and Sherlock & Co.

Flagship show The Rest Is History offers a premium “Athelstan” level (named after the first King of England) which offers access to a twice-yearly party and quarterly Zoom quiz for £25 per month.

The company’s first podcast, Ways of Making You Talk, has a membership plan based on Patreon where 5,533 members pay £5 per month.

Goalhanger chief commercial officer Conrad Withey told the Media Club podcast: “At the end of the day, we’re creating fandoms around our shows and nearly always, those fans want more. If we can give them that, and turn it into a business model that complements everything else we do, that’s powerful.

“The lovely thing about membership is that you get to know your listener, your viewer, your customer. It’s a different relationship – a much more intimate one. Podcasts naturally offer that lean-in experience, where audiences feel close to the hosts and want deeper engagement. And through membership, you gain data and insight that also strengthens the advertising side.

“So in effect, all boats rise. That’s how we think about membership: something that lifts every part of the business.”

Source: Press release/Press Gazette, 16 January 2026

41. The Globe and Mail: 246,000*

A spokesperson for The Globe and Mail, Canada’s largest national newspaper, told Press Gazette in late 2023 that it had around 246,000 digital-only subscriptions, excluding Apple News+.

CEO Andrew Saunders revealed last year 63% of the profitable title’s revenue comes from reader revenue and said: “Our number one priority is digital subscriptions.” Print advertising now makes up 15% of total revenue.

He said The Globe and Mail typically grows digital subscriptions by between 10-15% each year. “We think there’s still a tremendous amount of room based on that, as long as we continue to deliver relevant, high-value content.”

Source: Company spokesperson, November 2023

42. Los Angeles Times: 243,000

The Los Angeles Times reported having 243,000 paid digital subscriptions in a deck provided for potential investors in October 2025.

It also said 500,000 people are paying to access its content across all digital platforms, including Apple News+ which shares subscription revenue with publishers based on what content is accessed.

Alliance for Audited Media data put the total digital circulation for Los Angeles Times on 280,229 in the six months to 30 September 2025.

Source: Investor deck, October 2025

43. Elle: 233,589

Hearst-owned women’s magazine Elle had 233,589 paid digital subscriptions in the six months to 31 December plus a further 9,085 digital readers via ‘all you can read’ services like Apple News+ that share revenue with publishers.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

44. Fortune: 187,133

Fortune had a paying digital subscriber base of 187,133 in the six months to 31 December 2025 according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

It had an additional 14,722 digital readers through paid ‘all you can read’ services.

When Fortune cut 10% of its global workforce in summer 2025, a memo to staff from chief executive Anastasia Nyrkovskaya said: “We have incredible assets at our disposal: 71 years of ranking the Fortune 500, a significant number of loyal print, digital and newsletter subscribers, our best-in-class executive membership communities, and incredible talent in each of you.”

Nyrkovskaya said the strategy moving forward would be “to cultivate our premium franchise communities and deliver premium editorial content to them”.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

45. Cosmopolitan: 171,454

Hearst-owned women’s magazine Cosmopolitan had 171,454 paid digital subscriptions in the six months to 31 December.

It received revenue from an additional digital paid readership of 39,854 through ‘all you can read’ services.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

46. The Free Press: 170,000

Bari Weiss-founded, Substack-based publication The Free Press had more than 170,000 paying subscribers in October 2025 when it was bought by Paramount.

Most of these subscribers paid $10 per month, meaning potential revenue of about $18.4m after Substack takes its 10% share.

Paramount said in the year to October 2025, The Free Press grew revenue by 82% and total paid and free subscribers by 86% to 1.5 million.

Following the deal, The Free Press lifted its paywall for a week to showcase its journalism to a wider audience.

It is unclear if this helped The Free Press meet an informal goal of 250,000 paying subscribers by the end of 2025.

Source: Press release, 6 October 2025

47. NZME: 166,000

The New Zealand Herald and Business Desk, owned by NZME, together had 166,000 digital-only subscriptions at the end of 2025, growth of 10% in a year.

They had more than 243,000 total subscribers across print and digital, up 3% from 236,000 at the end of 2024.

Digital subscription revenue was up 3% year on year “only partly offsetting lower print subscriber and retail outlet sales” meaning total reader revenue was down 3%.

Alongside the Herald Premium and Business Desk, the all-access bundle (which costs NZ$349 (£155) per year but with a current discount price of NZ$49 (£22) for a year) includes lifestyle vertical Viva Premium and magazine brand NZ Listener.

The New Zealand Herald website was revamped in July 2025 to have a “faster, smarter and more visually immersive experience” with the ability for the newsroom to “tailor layouts to enhance dynamic storytelling” and, in future, do more personalisation, regionalisation and variation in multimedia formats.

Editor-in-chief Murray Kirkness, citing the digital subscriptions growth, said they “know there’s still growing demand for our premium content online”.

“Our focus remains on delivering trusted, quality journalism whilst ensuring we can quickly respond to changing audience needs and future-proof our news platforms for sustainable growth.”

Source: Annual results, 24 February 2026

48. Good Housekeeping: 164,435

Hearst-owned women’s magazine brand Good Housekeeping had 164,435 individual paid digital subscriptions in the US in the six months to 31 December 2025 plus a further paid digital readership of 54,660 via ‘all you can read’ bundles.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

49. San Francisco Chronicle: 137,759

The Hearst Newspapers-owned San Francisco Chronicle had 137,759 paying subscribers to its digital replica edition in the six months to 30 September 2025 according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

It had a further 21,316 paying “non-replica” digital subscribers (which can include a range of online products including website access).

Digital subscribers to San Francisco Chronicle get unlimited access to the website, app and the daily e-edition of the newspaper.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 30 September 2025

50. Australian Community Media: 157,000

Australian Community Media had 157,000 digital subscribers to its regional and farming titles in February 2025 and was reportedly expecting to surpass 200,000 in 2026.

The publisher’s paywalled titles include The Canberra Times, Newcastle Herald and The Land.

Speaking after weekday publication ended for 14 regional newspapers, ACM managing director Tony Kendall said: “Our ambition is to have a sustainable journalism business across digital, subs and print where it makes sense.

“We see a world where we still have very strong Saturday products – and in all of our markets – in print editions.”

“It’s a balance, though. Obviously, print advertising still makes up a large part of our profitability, but as we progress through the next three to five years, we’re going to see more and more that digital subscription revenue be able to cover the cost of journalism and deliver profitability.”

Source: Mi3, 20 February 2025

51. Chicago Tribune: 152,255

The Alden Global Capital-owned Chicago Tribune had 152,255 paying subscribers to its digital replica edition in the six months to 30 September 2025 according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 30 September 2025

52. Irish Times Group: 150,000 (not all digital only)

The Irish Times and Irish Examiner together have around 150,000 subscribers (including digital only and print home delivery).

Subscriber revenue is now fully funding journalism at The Irish Times for the first time, ten years after launching the paywall.

Editor Ruadhán Mac Cormaic told Press Gazette: “We have the largest number of digital subscribers of any news publisher in Ireland, but we also have the highest revenue because we don’t discount heavily. We attach real value to the work we do.”

Source: Press Gazette interview, 18 February 2026

53. Newsquest: 145,000

Digital-only paid subscriptions at UK regional publisher Newsquest grew by 32% in the year to 31 December 2025, reaching 145,000.

Despite this average revenue per user was down 9% in Q4 from $6.21 to $5.67.

Newsquest Scotland announced at the start of December it had passed 50,000 digital subscribers for the first time (reaching 51,153).

This included national newspaper The Herald (16,500), pro-independence newspaper The National (11,000), almost 14,000 subscribers across its standalone digital sports publications such as the Rangers Review and Celtic Way, more than 7,500 subscribers to local newsbrands like the Glasgow Times and East Lothian Courier, and almost 2,000 to specialist magazines.

In July 2025 Newsquest launched an “All Access Scotland” bundle meaning readers of The Herald or The National can upgrade to additionally receive all the sports and 15 local news sites for £8.99 (an extra £2 per month).

The Scotland division is aiming to reach 75,000 subscribers by the end of 2027. Editor-in-chief Callum Baird said new jobs have been “created in areas of opportunity we’ve identified to help drive even faster growth”.

Outside Scotland, Newsquest announced at the end of October that Southampton-based Southern Daily Echo had surpassed 5,000 digital subscribers.

Source: USA Today Co quarterly results, 26 February 2026

54. Esquire: 133,302

Heart-owned men’s magazine brand Esquire had a paid digital subscriber base of 133,302 in the six months to 31 December 2025 plus a further digital paid readership of 36,927 via ‘all you can read’ bundles.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 31 December 2025

55. The Business of Fashion: 123,000

International fashion industry B2B title The Business of Fashion had 123,000 paying subscribers at the end of Q4 2025.

This represents an increase of 12% in the past year.

The Business of Fashion offers BoF Professional memberships for fashion and beauty industry leaders, with a subscription covering both industries costing £350 per year (currently £262.50 for the first year) or options for one of the sectors at £300 each. Team packages are also available.

The memberships include daily news and other website content, member-only newsletters, digital events and masterclasses, and industry case studies.

Source: Company spokesperson, 27 February 2026

56. The Philadelphia Inquirer: 116,871

The Philadelphia Inquirer, owned by non-profit Lenfest Institute, had 116,871 paid subscribers to its digital replica edition in the six months to September 2025 according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

Source: Alliance for Audited Media, 30 September 2025

57. The Minnesota Star Tribune: 102,000

The Minnesota Star Tribune has 102,000 digital subscribers, 71,000 daily print subscribers and 123,000 Sunday subscribers according to reporting in February 2026.

In August 2025 the newsbrand launched Strib Varsity, a platform for all of its high school sports content (previously across 17 different websites) including free access to game statistics, scores, standings and schedules but charges for livestreams and stories. The subscriptions include access to the main Star Tribune website, app and e-edition.

Strib Varsity is now driving conversions at a rate four times higher than Star Tribune articles. By Q4 2025 Strib Varsity subscriptions made up 11% of the total for the newsbrand.

Associate product manager Sydney Lewis said: “We will definitely explore what a Varsity-like product could look like for food, politics, outdoors, etc., but for now we’re focused on making Varsity as strong as it can be.”

Lewis said subscriptions are the “North Star” for the Star Tribune.

At the start of 2026 the newspaper unveiled a paywall-free breaking-news blog in the midst of the sometimes deadly immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The paper also offers unlimited gift links, so that paid subscribers can share stories with others, as well as a family subscription plan. And it has a non-profit fund to which donors can make tax-deductible contributions to support its journalism.

Source: News Media Help Desk, 16 February 2026

58. Letters from an American: 100,000

Historian Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack publication Letters from an American has “hundreds of thousands” of paying subscribers, meaning a minimum of 100,000.

With an annual subscription cost of £38, that suggests yearly revenue of at least £3.8m – of which Substack would take 10%.

Substack says Letters from an American is the third biggest US-based publication on the platform behind The Free Press and The Bulwark. This count is likely to include both paid and free subscribers.

Source: Substack/Press Gazette analysis, 23 January 2025

59. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 100,000

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ended 2025 with more than 100,000 digital subscribers and said it “far exceeded its goals in retaining print subscribers as digital customers”.

The AJC is a new entrant to the 100k Club. The New York Times reported in August 2025 it had 75,000 digital subscribers. At the end of 2023 it was at about 55,000, meaning growth of 82% in two years.

The AJC published its final print edition on 31 December and became a digital-only publication. Just over a month later it announced it would cut about 50 jobs, or 15% of total staff. About half of the layoffs came from the newsroom.

President and publisher Andrew Morse said: “We’ve made these difficult decisions because we believe they will best position us to continue to accelerate the AJC’s growth. We have invested heavily in our editorial, product and business teams over the last three years, and we’ve seen direct results from that investment.”

Morse cancelled previous plans to close the newspaper in 2023 because he said the AJC’s digital news product needed more work to ensure people will subscribe and make it profitable on its own.

Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3 February 2026

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