The combined number of digital subscribers for The Times and The Sunday Times has risen 10 per cent in the past three months according to figures released by owners News International.
From June to the end of August the number of users signing up to access content behind The Times and Sunday Times paywall rose from 103,036 to 111,036, compared with a 0.2 per cent fall in The Times’ print circulation during the same period, from an average daily sale of 440,581 in June to 429,554 in September.
Print sales of the Sunday Times dropped from 1,000,848 in June to 984,223 in September.
Almost half of The Times’ daily sale is now made up of print and digital subscribers, according to NI.
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Chief executive Tom Mockridge said: ‘I am very encouraged by these figures. In contrast to the industry trend of declining circulation, The Times and The Sunday Times are showing that they can increase the audience paying for their digital journalism.
‘From now on, we plan to release our digital subscription numbers every month to provide the best possible transparency to our commercial partners and clients.’
The Times and The Sunday Times began charging for digital content in July 2010.
By November it was claiming to have signed up more than 50,000 monthly subscribers paying to access its digital versions of The Times and Sunday Times, and by March 2011 that figure had risen to over 80,000.
Digital subscriptions for The Times and Sunday Times broke the 100,000 barrier just over a year after the paywall went live.
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