Reach is planning to put “serious focus” on subscriptions as part of a revenue diversification drive, it revealed in its half-year results on Thursday.
Reach, the publisher of the Mirror, Express, Daily Star and dozens of regional news titles, reported revenue down 3.4% year on year to £256m in the six months to 30 June.
Print was down 4.8% to £194.1m while digital was up 1.8% to £61.1m.
Indirect digital revenues from platform revenue shares and programmatic website adverts were up 9.2%, in part due to a 6% growth in page views attributed to the central content hub “driving improved levels of productivity and more effective distribution”. But direct revenues from “direct engagement with the advertiser, agency or consumer” were down 7.9%.
[Read more: How Reach returned to audience growth after two years of decline]
This was attributed to a “tough macroeconomic backdrop, especially for our local business”.
The results were the first to be published under new chief executive Piers North, previously chief revenue officer, following the departure of Jim Mullen in March.
Under North, Reach has now set out three priorities for growth: revenue diversification, accelerating its use of tech and AI, and connecting with audiences including via deeper engagement.
North said: “I must be clear that there is no silver bullet, especially against the tough market we’re operating in. But there are plenty of opportunities and the team and I have a plan in place to seize these.”
The biggest step change within those priorities is the plan for “developing and rolling out digital subscriptions”, which North described on an investor call as “one market trend we haven’t yet taken advantage of”.
He noted the “growth of news subscriptions offering ad-free, premium content plus offers and products”.
At the start of last year Mail Online launched its Mail+ partial paywall restricting access to certain articles in its core areas and it reached 100,000 paying subscribers in less than ten months. The Sun followed suit with a similar model this year while Sky News has set out plans to charge for premium content.
North told investors: “Notably the adoption in the UK has stayed at around 10%, lower than what we’ve seen in other Western countries, in large part due to the impact of the BBC on the market,” citing Reuters Institute data that showed the UK was below the likes of 20% paying for online news in both the US and Ireland, with an average across 20 richer countries of 18%.
“But up to 10% of the market is absolutely worth playing for, and we’re in a good space to do more here now.”
North added that in the coming months Reach will “begin to more seriously develop our paid services offering” across the portfolio, with a pilot this year and a wider rollout in 2026.
He went on to say: “I see this as an important addition to our business model but we will continue to be primarily ad-funded for the foreseeable.
“And we remain committed to providing free news in the main, which I still think is right for us, right for our advertisers and right for large swathes of our audience and our role in society.
“However, for the right kind of content and products, I believe that now is the time to revisit this option.”
Reach’s experiments with online reader revenue began in 2019 with a micro-paywall asking for a small fee for some articles on Examiner Live, the website of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner. The trial lasted about five months despite a “large number” reportedly being willing to pay as it was decided Huddersfield was no longer the right place to do it.
In 2023 the Manchester Evening News became the first Reach newsbrand to launch a paid-for premium membership offering, with a metered paywall on its app and the Man United football news app. The Liverpool Echo and Liverpool FC apps, among others, followed after the MEN converted more than 1% of its app audience in the first three months.
Other reader revenue experiments launched in 2023 were an ad-free experience offering on the Daily Express website, in response to complaints around the user experience on Reach websites, and around a dozen paid-for Substack newsletters based on “strong personalities”. A new set of topic-based newsletters published on Substack have been launched this year but are free as they are aiming to reach new audiences.
North said this “early work has already given us confidence that there is demand for this proposition and plenty of insight to inform our next steps”.
Other areas where Reach plans to diversify its revenue is by expanding its affiliates and e-commerce proposition, which saw 9% year-on-year growth in 2025 so far. This includes the subscription package OK! Beauty Box and online marketplace Yimbly which launched last year and sells home, furniture, electricals, garden, baby, toys, beauty, sport and pet products, and which North said “I believe we can keep scaling”.
[Read more: How Reach has moved from salesman to shopkeeper with launch of Yimbly]
The results also cited the “increasing commercialisation” of video content following the creation of the Studio team last year and the launch of podcast and video studios at Reach offices across the UK.
North said that so far this year social video views have doubled and social revenue has increased “seven fold”.
The results said the growth priorities “will be underpinned by efficient cost and cash management, including an ongoing reduction of operating costs, simplification of the organisation, and further optimisation of the print business”. Reach said it is on track for a target to reduce total operating costs by 4-5% this year.
Earlier this month Reach put 104 jobs at risk as it looks to “streamline” its sports journalists into a central hub. About 50 roles were expected to be made redundant.
Also in the half-year results, Reach said its adjusted operating profit was up 0.6% year on year to £44.8m.
Print circulation revenue was down 3.7% to £144.3m and print advertising revenue was down 15.4% to £27.7m. Print still makes up three-quarters of Reach revenues.
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