The last three decades have been a rocky and dark road for printed newspapers. The economic model they were based on, essentially advertising and selling copies, began to collapse in earnest in 2008. Since the end of the first decade of the century, a number of things have changed, some of which directly impacted business – the disappearance of classified ads in newspapers, others changing citizens’ information use habits, the popularization of smartphones, and, perhaps most severely , too many contributing to the decay of democracies, social polarization and loss of media credibility Social networks play a crucial role. However, today we see a light at the end of this tunnel, more or less intense depending on the different markets and the characteristics of each media. We’re talking about subscribers, they have a first and last name and share values with their reference header. On this point, everyone agrees: subscribers will be the bastion on which the future of the press can be built.
In EL PAÍS the intensity of this light has a number: 250,000. For the world’s most influential Spanish-language newspaper, this is a milestone in its transformation and sustainability, an achievement achieved in just two and a half years. With an unusual growth rate, on Friday it surpassed the 214,000 exclusive digital subscribers, to which are added 33,000 of the printed edition (most also use the digital option that includes their subscription) and about 7,000 of the version in PDF format the paper. A total of more than 254,000. The outbreak of war in Ukraine on February 24 of this year, and intense on-the-ground reporting by a dozen special envoys from the newspaper, as well as the payment model change a few weeks earlier, accelerated the continued increase in our subscription base from months ago. In a market more mature than the Spanish one, Louis Dreyfus, CEO of Le Monde, explains his experience at the helm of the leading French newspaper and gives some indications for the future: “We are in a sector where usually the winner or at The first two take up most of the business. Le Monde holds 70% of new media subscribers”. After more than a decade of paid content, the newspaper managed by Dreyfus has 465,000 digital subscribers, and its followers, Le Figaro and Mediapart, have around 200,000.
The EL PAÍS editorial office in Madrid Photo: CARLOS ROSILLO | Video: EPV
In Spain, the traditional headers only changed their step very late. EL PAÍS launched its paywall in May 2020, El Mundo six months earlier and many Vocento newspapers even earlier. La Vanguardia did it in October 2020 and eldiario.es, a native digital medium, was already born with a system of partners who paid even when the site was open. Industry data shows that no newspaper except EL PAÍS has more than 100,000 digital subscribers. Almost all are still far from that number, and as explained by leaders in various media outlets, the pace has stagnated in recent months. The phenomenon Dreyfus points out, that there is a clear dominator, seems to be repeated in many countries.
Carlos Núñez, Executive President of PRISA Media and President and CEO of EL PAÍS, highlights this growth “well above the average in Spain and even of major international newspapers” and assures that the goal is to reach “at least” 450,000 subscribers a year To exceed 2025 “We will do this with the consent of the 400 journalists that make up the editorial board and with clear rules that defend rigor and transparency.” For Núñez, there are three keys: the first, the editorial product – “if it has no quality, no one will pay” –; second, the industrialization of the subscriber management process; and third, a good user experience without advertising overload.
Beyond the numbers, there is a common denominator in conversations with all respondents: there is no other way but to invest in quality content, invest in journalism, invest in journalists. Of course, it takes a lot more to be successful, they agree, but some old recipes of the internet are unlikely to feed large independent media outlets, and neither will advertising as its main source of income. Marty Baron is perhaps one of the most recognized editors of recent decades. He was already running the Washington Post when Jeff Bezos bought it in 2013, but the paper was lagging at the time. Speaking in the US, where he’s finishing a book about his role as a director and Donald Trump’s turbulent years, he tells how things changed with the arrival of the tycoon: “When Bezos bought us, we had very few subscribers. Then came digital investments. We needed more readers, we were very local and few people read us and consequently they would hardly subscribe. Then we started closing more articles for payment and understanding why they were subscribed. In our case, it was the themes of research, politics and opinion that we reinforced. The timing of those bets was very good because it coincided with the arrival of Trump and we were ready.” In this time we hear a lot about fake news and misinformation tries to flow like a river through society. “There was great concern about the mounting misinformation, and that prompted us to emphasize mission, to focus on democracy and to hold those in power accountable. We created a new slogan that we put under our headline: Democracy Diess in Darkness. People didn’t subscribe to a product, they subscribed to a thing. The reason was to support democracy. And it worked, our subscribers and readers exploded,” Baron recalls.
EL PAÍS has been investing in this process of digital transformation for many years and is adapting to a new era. Gone are the days when 400,000 copies were sold every day. After going through different phases, we see how successful models are built on subscribers and differentiated content with added value. The lost ground of the print edition is replaced by millions of readers around the world and now 250,000 subscribers. Founded in 1976, the newspaper has a more global character than ever, with a network of correspondents that has remained intact while newsrooms have been established in Mexico and Colombia, or coverage increased in the United States. Perhaps at a pivotal moment, EL PAÍS has the largest team of science journalists in its history, with specialists in new narratives and visualization, climate change experts, 11 people in the audio department, an expanding audiovisual strategy, more than 40 high-quality newsletters and, in short said, the largest newsroom in Spain. Its director, Pepa Bueno, describes the situation: “Having reached this milestone means it is possible. We’re building a community that cares about the same things we do. Readers give us complaints that we work on. For example the youth challenge or reaching more readers in America. They also want to be involved and we learn from them because our relationship has been one-sided for many years.” Similar to what Baron recalls, the director of EL PAÍS is concerned about the current strong polarization: “The lack of consensus on reality is very dangerous and we have to work hard at it. Journalism is fundamental to democracy. I believe in editorial offices that have a leeway that allows them to do slow work and demand journalism. And for that we need to keep increasing the number of subscribers .”
A group of subscribers enter the early afternoon meeting this week. ALEX ONCIU
editorial project
When the media industry talks about subscriptions, about an almost perfect combination of editorial project and business model, everyone thinks of the same imprint: The New York Times. Mark Thompson, a British manager from the BBC, took over the jewel in America’s crown in 2012. The newspaper did not see its best days and, given the enormous size of the Anglo-Saxon market, barely had half a million subscribers. When he left it in 2020, he was close to hitting six million. Today he devotes himself to advising a number of media companies and has just set up a foundation together with Nobel Prize winner María Ressa to support independent journalism where it is threatened. He comes from a meeting with the board of Axel Springer in Berlin when he visits EL PAÍS. “When I came to The New York Times, a lot of people thought that 500,000 subscriptions was probably close to the total number that could be reached. Then there were 1.2 million subscribers to the print edition and those who were there believed that those who had been subscribers to the paper would switch to digital and that would be it. I had a different approach. The New York Times was one of the best newspapers in the world, and if we get the business model right, I saw no reason not to aim for 10 or 20 million subscribers. He knew less than anyone, but he was more ambitious. He had great faith in people’s willingness to pay for quality journalism. There is a lot of content on the internet, but not that much excellent journalism. The first thing that happened there was investing in journalism. Like HBO or Netflix, if you want people to subscribe to entertainment on the internet, you have to have great shows and you can’t cut there. Then you need to create a great digital experience and have digital marketing experts to streamline the subscription model. And we did all of that,” says Thompson.
More information
The launch of the digital subscription model in EL PAÍS in 2020 coincided with a period of rarely seen journalistic intensity, which forced this newspaper to work hard on two extraordinary issues: first a pandemic with devastating effects and then a war in Europe with a global impact . The two troubles took place in an area where credibility was a cornerstone for the media and where many interests were at stake to intoxicate the citizens. This effort to explain reality and be useful to readers is probably largely responsible for the success of these 250,000 subscribers. Thompson remembers clearly when subscriptions skyrocketed after another news event: “Newspapers always do well when there are big stories, and Donald Trump was 2015. Bottom line, we were prepared. People want reliable information that they can believe and use in their lives. For me, the key was to behave like a manager who really believes that and not to think about cuts. You have to build more than destroy. A similar view is shared by Jon Slade, who is responsible for both subscriptions and advertising for the Financial Times. If The New York Times is the undeniable reference, the FT is a pioneer in charging for content and an example of sophistication in knowing its audience. In 2019 they exceeded one million subscribers and after two decades on a sustainable course, Slade dares a recipe: “We have to keep investing in quality journalism, going back to the roots; then invest more in the way stories are told, think about mobile, displays, audio, video and how readers engage and engage with content; and third, think of the readers, what they want from us, and respond accordingly.”