News Corp Australia’s mastheads have now passed the one million digital subscriber milestone.
The milestone was announced in New York at the company’s first quarter earnings, which revealed closing digital subscribers at News Corp Australia, as of September 30, were 1,012,000 compared to 897,000 in the prior year.
News Corp Australasia’s executive chairman Michael Miller said the achievement reflected Australians’ thirst for trusted journalism.
“We’ve led the way for digital subscriptions in Australia with audiences seeking out our mastheads across multiple platforms whenever they need trusted news, information and entertainment,” he said.
Miller said the decision to introduce paid subscriptions in 2011 was greeted with much scepticism.
“The naysayers claimed people would never pay in sufficient numbers to make digital publishing a viable subscription business, however they failed to appreciate how digital and data would bring us so much closer to our audiences through new, innovative storytelling channels.
“We now know the success of the News Corp Model says much about the foresight of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and their belief people would pay for journalism relevant and helpful to their lives.”
Miller said subscribing to digital news had become an accepted method to remain reliably informed.
“Over the past 11 years since introducing paid digital subscriptions almost all major publishers globally have developed similar successful models but very few have matched either our penetration or volume,” he said.
Miller said it is now clear we have a sustainable model for journalism.
“Our revenue streams are now a rich mix of subscribers and advertisers, licensing fees and marketing services.”
Miller paid tribute to News Corp Australia’s audiences.
“In all seriousness I’d just like to say thanks a million,” he said. “Australians can rest assured we will continue to evolve our offering across all platforms to meet our audiences wherever they consume our content, whether in print, digital, video, audio or social media.”
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