Mediahuis Ireland has crossed the 100,000 digital subscriber mark, just over five years after first launching its paywalls.
Mediahuis is headquartered in Belgium with titles around Europe but has owned the Belfast Telegraph, Irish Independent, Sunday Independent and regional titles like The Wexford People, The Sligo Champion, The Corkman and The Kerryman since 2019 when it took over Independent News and Media. The local titles sit under the Irish Independent online.
The company said it has put a “renewed focus on local news” since launching the digital subscriptions strategy in February 2020 and grown its audio and video departments. The Irish Independent also launched a new money and personal finance section online.
The Irish Independent and Belfast Telegraph both have two digital subscription tiers: a “premium” offer with full access to the website and app plus puzzles, and “premium+” which adds digital replicas of the print editions of multiple titles plus archives.
The Belfast Telegraph premium tier currently costs £3 per month (£7.99 full price) with premium+ at £4 (rising to £9.99). Its e-paper access also covers the Sunday Independent and Sunday Life.
The Irish Independent’s digital subscription prices are listed as €0.77 (£0.65) per week or €1.90 (£1.62) at full price for the lower tier, then €1.06 (90p) up to €2.67 (£2.27) for premium+. As well as the Irish and Sunday Independent e-paper, its higher tier includes the 13 local newspapers that sit within its brand online.
The company becomes the 53rd English-language news publisher worldwide to exceed 100,000 online subscribers according to Press Gazette’s 100k Club ranking.
Mediahuis Ireland chief executive Peter Vandermeersch said: “I am extremely happy and proud with this achievement. It shows that our journalism, be it in the Irish Independent or the Belfast Telegraph, is being valued by readers all over the island of Ireland.
“In a world where fake news is omnipresent, It is crucial to be a trusted source. Mediahuis firmly believes in further building the future of journalism here in Ireland.”
Writing on Linkedin, Vandermeersch added: “When we launched our digital subscription model in February 2020, we did so with ambition, but also with humility. We knew it would take time, trust, and tenacity to convince readers to pay for quality journalism in a digital world overflowing with free content.
“And yet, here we are. 100,000 people have chosen to support our journalism – not just with their attention, but with their wallets. That is not just a number. It is a vote of confidence in our journalism and in our people.
“This milestone is not a finish line. It is a foundation. A signal that we are on the right path, and also a reminder that we must keep evolving.”
The company also claims to reach more than one million people across Ireland each week. Its tabloid title Sunday World is not paywalled online.
In January The Belfast Telegraph’s Northern Ireland editor Sam McBride told Press Gazette his title had almost 13,000 digital subscribers with about 90,000 across the portfolio.
McBride praised the paywall strategy, saying it helps the publisher avoid the “short-termism” that some others can fall into.
He said of his bosses: “While they obviously want to make a profit every year… they are always asking questions both internally and in terms of what they say publicly about what does this mean for where we’ll be in two years’ time, in five years’ time, in ten years’ time, are we building a sustainable business, and that, for the first time, I suppose, in my career as a newspaper journalist, gives me hope that there actually will be a sustainable business in ten or 15 or 20 years’ time.”
McBride added that the subscriptions model means the key metric in the newsroom is not page views but what subscribers are reading and how long they spend with the content.
Mediahuis overall has a goal of generating 70% of its revenue from digital by 2030. One year ago the split was 70% print and 30% digital.
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