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  1. Paywalls
November 11, 2024

Mail Online hits 100,000 paying subscribers

A US launch for the partial paywall is planned for 2025.

By Charlotte Tobitt

Mail Online has hit 100,000 paying subscribers to its partial paywall in less than ten months.

The news site and its apps began restricting access to certain articles labelled as part of the Mail+ subscription for UK users at the end of January.

Mail+ launched in the UK only but rolled out in Australia and New Zealand last month. A US launch is planned for 2025.

Initially up to 15 articles per day were paywalled but now around 30 articles a day are marked as available for Mail+ subscribers only. Mail Online publishes around 1,500 stories per day with most remaining free to read.

Daily Mail editor-in-chief Ted Verity said: “The success of Mail+ is proof that readers are happy to pay for the kind of high-quality journalism the Mail has long been famous for.

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“To hit 100,000 subscribers so quickly is a fantastic achievement and a huge testament to the brilliance of our journalists and the Mail+ team.

“But this is just the start – and we are hungry for much, much more.”

Mail+ currently costs £1.99 per month for a year and then goes up to £6.99 a month.

Mail Online’s paywalled articles come from some of the brand’s core content areas including showbiz and royal, real-life stories, health and personal finance advice, and its star columnists including Richard Eden and Bryony Gordon.

On Friday afternoon, Mail+ articles on the homepage included:

Articles behind the paywall are clearly marked on the homepage with an M+ logo next to the headline.

In addition, the Mail has 92,327 subscribers to Mail+ editions (a version of the newspaper optimised for tablet and mobile). This also costs £1.99 per month for the first year, rising to £12.99 per month.

DMG Media now joins the group of less than 40 publishers worldwide who have secured more than 100,000 website subscribers.

Mail Online had a UK audience of 18.3 million in September, marginally ahead of The Sun and The Independent and just behind The Guardian.

The Sun has recently begun rolling out a registration wall asking users to sign up with their email address to read certain articles but it does not ask them to pay. The Sun’s wall initially mainly restricted access to some of its best-known commentators and writers such as Trevor Kavanagh, Rod Liddle and Tony Parsons but it has begun to expand to other areas such as health.

UK regional publisher Newsquest hit its own 100,000 milestone for paying digital subscribers in September, four years after launching a soft paywall across most of its biggest sites. Newsquest titles include the Brighton Argus, South Wales Argus, Oxford Mail and Eastern Daily Press.

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Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly dose of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
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