In Graphic Detail: Subscriptions are rising at big news publishers – even as traffic shrinks

February 17, 2026

By Sara Guaglione After the pandemic-era surge in news publishers’ subscribers, year-over-year gains are harder to come by, pushing publishers to prioritize retention, moving subscribers to higher-priced tiers and bundles, and product expansion.

Digiday analyzed the subscription and paid reader revenue trends among major news publishers that have publicly shared these numbers, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Media, The Guardian and Daily Mail.

For a bunch, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, growth isn’t just continuing, it’s speeding up, and likewise so is The Guardian’s paid reader contribution model. Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s subscription business shows signs of normalization after a 2024 spike, and Daily Mail is still ramping up its relatively new subscription business, which launched in 2024 in the U.K. and expanded to the U.S. and Canada in February 2025.Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV. …read more

Source:: Digiday