[eMarketer] US news outlet shift to subscription model in revenue diversification drive

The recent announcement by American media outlet USA Today that it is moving to subscription model for many of its stories is the latest indication of the growing focus by major news outlet to transition to digital media.

The publisher says exclusive investigations, visual explainers, some news analysis, and “immersive storytelling” will go behind the paywall, while the rest will remain free to read.

The move byUSA Today to move into subscription offering comes at a time when readers are willing to pay for news.

Ad-supported news has become less and less viable over the years: Total newspaper ad spending has been in decline for years, and though digital newspaper ad spending has managed to grow, we predict it will barely scrape by with single-percentage growth over the next few years.

With Chrome set to deprecate its third-party cookies by 2023, publishers’ digital ad revenues will likely suffer even more.

eMarketer is of the opinion that while ad revenues drop, US digital newspaper subscription revenues will cross the $1 billion mark this year, hitting $1.12 billion. By 2024, we expect that to grow to $1.53 billion, split among 25.7 million total subscriptions.

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