The FT should hit 1 million subscribers in 2019

The Financial Times believes it will complete its “march to a million” journey to 1 million paid subscribers next year, reports Ian Burrell of The Drum.

Burrell writes, “The FT revealed it now has 930,000 paid subscribers, with 740,000 of those (79.6%) being digital subscribers and the remaining 190,000 having a print-only deal. Digital subscription is up 11% year-on-year and overall subscription by 7%.

“The realisation of the longstanding 1 million target would be a significant vindication of a paywall strategy that began with its first digital subscriptions in 2002 and continued in 2007 with the introduction of the FT’s first metered-paywall. Its chief executive, John Ridding, recently recalled how that decision met with a ‘pretty hostile’ response from digital futurists, who warned the paper that ‘the internet wants to be free’.

“In reality, that 16-year quest behind the paywall has been conducted without a definitive map. The FT has tweaked and re-tweaked its navigational dials as evolving technology has given it new insights into reader behaviour and the paths it must travel to find new audiences.”

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