More and more, digital news is behind paywalls requiring subscriptions to gain full access to a publication’s content. Alkami Research analyzed subscription trends for three major legacy national newspaper brands and found that in 2022, The New York Times was nearly five times more popular than either The Wall Street Journal or The Washington Post. In 2023, The New York Times grew its subscribers by 18 percent to expand its lead; The Wall Street Journal subscribers were slightly higher but The Washington Post declined by 26.5 percent in 2023.
Note: Subscriber levels displayed in the chart were all indexed using the 2022 New York Times subscriber base as 100.
Financial institutions should be interested in news subscriptions for two reasons. First, as with the previous analysis on recurring payments, ensure that account holders are paying for their subscriptions with the bank or credit union’s debit card to lock in interchange income, stay top of wallet, and maintain the transaction relationship. Second, transaction analysis on a financial institution’s own data can reveal where their account holders’ spend patterns are and drive more intelligent marketing engagements.
