Christmas is coming – and with it more demise-defying print media numbers

With the demise of print regularly predicted, Mike Richards, Director of Capital City Media, updates with some defiant numbers from major publishers

Since the lockdown in March all the national press providers have made good progress with growing their customer bases.

With constant rumour that the UK national press print industry is dying, Mark Twain would be very quick to mention that, while paperboys are finally sighing with relief as their bags lighten, the medium is actually on the increase, only in different forms as people consume their trusted media in alternative ways.

The Daily Mail has seen its subscriptions double as offers are inviting readers to pay more for daily briefings not seen by non-subscribers. This includes videos and podcasts from readers’ favourite columnists.

The Financial Times has seen sales of print copies of FT Weekend up 4,400 year-on-year, with most of the growth in the last six-months. At the peak of the crisis sales of the FT within supermarkets increased, showing that its readers are clearly not only working from home but going round Lidl too.

The Telegraph also continues to attract new subscribers with another month-on-month increase of 1.3% in August, which takes its subscriber base to just over half a million. The subscriptions tend to be as a result of editorial newsletters being sent out encouraging sign up.

And news from the little Shard (home of News UK, parent company of The Times) is that unique viewers (all behind a paywall, remember) have risen by 50% in the past six months from 10.4 million per month to 15.5 million. 

So, this December, you’ll still have to give the paperboy a Christmas present, but in a decade’s time, they may be a robot.