FT nearing 1 million digital-only subscribers

The Financial Times will soon reach 1 million digital-only subscribers, a source familiar with the publication confirmed to Axios reporter Sara Fischer.

Fischer reports, “The FT has had a digital paywall since 2002. It was one of the first publishers to introduce a metered paywall in 2007, before transitioning over to paid subscription trials in 2015.

The company has seen subscriptions surge in recent months amid efforts to expand globally outside of the U.K. and experiments with subscriber-only products.

“By the numbers: In total, the company has 1.17 million paid subscribers and will reach 1 million digital-only subscribers later this month, according to internal estimates. It’s unclear how many of those subscribers are on promotional plans.

Roughly 500,000 subscribers come from the U.K., with the U.S. its second-biggest market.

“Flashback: The FT said it topped 1 million paid readers in 2019, but that figure included print subscribers.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.