Reach-owned Manchester Evening News has launched a paywall offering paid premium content and less advertising for £4.99 per month.
Reach chief executive Piers North said: “This launch is only the start of a journey for us, but an exciting one. As I said in July, digital subscriptions will complement rather than replace our ad-funded model, and much of our daily news content will remain free. With an audience of our scale, however, moving even a fraction of that audience to paid will be significant.
“Crucially, this move allows us to offer some of our most loyal readers a more rewarding and seamless experience while strengthening our revenue mix for the future.”
The paywall move comes as digital revenue growth fails to offset print decline for Reach.
Manchester Evening News editor Sarah Lester told readers about the new offering in an editor’s letter, saying: “We’re proud of what we do, but Manchester is a city that never stands still, and neither should its news brand.
“This is a city that’s bold and fiercely proud. Manchester Evening News Premium is our next step in reflecting that spirit, offering journalism that’s deeper, more personal and even more connected to the place we all call home.”
Online paywalls will be launched at the Liverpool Echo and Wales Online in coming weeks with further Reach titles starting online subscriptions in 2026.
The Manchester Evening News is the 19th most used news website in the UK in terms of time spent with a total of 63.5 million UK audience minutes in September per Ipsos iris data. In terms of reach, it had 14 million monthly visitors in the month.
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