More than 10,000 people have signed up as paying members of GB News, according to the broadcaster.
The membership scheme, which soft-launched in November, offers access to paywalled member-only content on the website including extra opinion and analysis, documentaries such as “Britain’s Far-Left Exposed” published in June, polls, quizzes, discounts and in-person events with presenters.
A banner across the top of the homepage states: “Don’t let them silence you – support GB News.”
Emily Fox, head of GBN Membership, told Press Gazette the membership aims to be a “value-added experience. This is not about taking the free content already on TV and putting it behind the paywall.
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“We focus on delivering value to our members and generating unique FOMO-style content. Specific members-only documentaries, interviews in full, behind the scenes content, extra analysis and debate that non-members wouldn’t otherwise get.”
Fox added that members are “particularly engaged” with “exclusive analysis following key news events from our presenters and opinion from our core columnists”.
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“Our members are galvanised by what we stand for,” she continued. “And we stand for the silent moderate majority who are often ignored. We aim to be the fearless champion of Britain – its voice and its values. We’re giving them a voice and that’s why people are flocking to support GB News.”
The membership price points are £5 (“basic”), £10 (“supporter”) or £20 (“VIP”) a month. Everyone gets the paywalled content, puzzles and weekly quiz while supporters also get regular emails and priority access to events and the top tier adds a further email newsletter and VIP-only events.
If 10,000 people were paying the lower price point of £5 each month, that would generate £600,000 in revenue per year.
The broadcaster primarily drives revenue through advertising but has grappled with a “massive” ad boycott by some major brands since its 2021 launch.
In the year to May 2023, the latest figures available, GB News generated revenue of £6.7m with operating losses of £42.4m.
The latest Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found 8% of people in the UK said they pay for online news and 69% said they would not be willing to pay anything – both the worst levels among 20 key markets.
Asked how GB News had cracked asking people to hand over money, Fox said: “It’s something we’ve worked really hard on – to create a GBN community that viewers/readers feel part of. We prioritise their stories and the issues affecting them.
“A big part of our strategy is not just building a funnel but enhancing the experience at every stage to engage our community. We focus on showcasing their views on TV and in online stories – making sure they have a fantastic forum to debate and discuss with Your Say. One of our most popular editorial features is the Poll of the Day. Britons are signing up to be part of discussion.”
GB News claims 100 million monthly page views mark met
GB News also claimed to have crossed 100 million monthly page views for the first time in July.
The month included the start of the nationwide unrest that followed the stabbings at a Taylor Swift dance class in Southport, as well as the end of the general election and the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in the US.
GB News said the page view record of 103.14 million page views was generated by 21 million visitors.
The figures are sourced from GB News’ internal tracking so are not comparable with externally-audited industry metrics but are viewed by the broadcaster as being more accurate. Ipsos iris data for June (the latest available) put gbnews.com on a monthly audience of 9.1 million with 30 million page views that month.
GB News launched in June 2021 but moved to a .com domain in March 2023, which chief digital officer Geoff Marsh marked “an ambitious new chapter” and “enables us to compete much more aggressively, much faster, globally”.
This week Marsh said in a statement: “We’ve been the fastest-growing news website in the country for the last 15 months running but it’s not just raw growth – visitors are staying longer and engaging more deeply with our compelling storytelling.
“We set out to be disruptive, to be the fearless champion of Britain, its voices and its values. And millions and millions of people are responding to that.”
Marsh, the former Reach editorial director behind the growth of Express.co.uk, added: “Our owned and operated platforms are more popular than ever but we’re also seeing record growth right across social media, from Youtube – where we’ve now had more than 1.5 billion video views – to X, Tiktok and Instagram.
“This is just the start. There is a huge appetite for what we’re delivering and we have massive ambitions to grow our digital audience further in the months and years ahead. The first few days of August indicate that our growth is set to continue through the summer.”
The online audience of GB News has grown much faster than its linear TV channel where it had a monthly reach of 3.1 million people in June, according to broadcast data body BARB. This compares to 10.5 million for the BBC News Channel and 8 million for Sky News in the same month.
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