Paywall Benchmark From The Most Popular News Apps in the UK

Which news apps are driving high traffic in the UK? How much time is spent on them? If they are paywalled, what can we learn from their paywall?

Press Gazette recently published a ranking of the 25 most popular news apps in the UK using data from Ipsos iris. From this ranking based on traffic, our article will focus on publishers that have implemented a paywall or registration wall on their apps.

Our methodology:

• All screenshots were taken in October 2023 on an Android smartphone
• Apps were analyzed to discover whether the news app blocks content with a paywall
• Apps in the ranking comprise of both publishers and news aggregator sites
• We weren’t able to download two of these apps: Apple News and Money Saving Expert
  

25 most popular News App in the UK:

1. Apple News (13.5m) - news aggregator
2. BBC News (12.4m) - no paywall
3. Sky News (3.1m) - no paywall
4. The Guardian (2.2m) - no paywall but a donation wall
5. Upday for Samsung (2.1m) - aggregator without a paywall
6. Google News (1.8m) - aggregator without a paywall
7. Mail Online (1.8m) - option to create a free account on the app (but no registration wall)
8. AOL - News, Mail & Video (1.1m) - option to create a free account on the app (no screenshots allowed due to security policy)
9. Money Saving Expert (1m) - no paywall on the website
10. The Telegraph UK (818.9k) - paywall
11. In Your Area (677.4k) - registration wall
12. The Times & The Sunday Times (635.6k) - paywall
13. Press Reader (372.5k) - aggregator with a paywall
14. Readly (356.8k) - aggregator with a registration wall and a paywall
15. LBC Radio App (341.2k) - no paywall
16. Flipboard (324k) - aggregator without a paywall
17. Financial Times (321.3k) - paywall
18. The Sun Mobile (308k) - paywall on digital downloads
19. GB News (293.1k) - no paywall
20. Mail+ (280.8k) - option to create a free account on the app (but no reg wall)
21. NY Times (256k) - paywall
22. Mirror (246.4k) - registration wall
23. CNN Breaking News (236k) - option to create a free account on the app (but no registration wall)
24. Daily Express (197.6k) - paywall
25. Buzzfeed (187.4k) - no paywall
    
    

Key takeaways:

1.Time spent on app links to engagement

Other metrics can also be used to define an app’s success, namely time spent on the app. This metric is important to monitor how engaged users are. In this ranking, paywalled apps are leading - The Times and Sunday Times has the highest time spent per user (483 minutes) and is closely followed by The Telegraph (467 minutes).

2. Publisher maturity can be correlated to type of publisher

There’s a clear divide in revenue models according to publisher’s type. Publishers of so-called “tabloids” are often less mature in their audience monetisation strategies, offering account creations rather than subscriptions and without displaying a value proposition.

• tabloids: The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, The Sun, The Mirror
• quality journalism: Guardian, Telegraph, NYT, Financial Times, Times
• non-stop live news: BBC News, CNN
  

3. News aggregators generate high traffic rates

In this ranking, six are news aggregators. This means that they redirect users to publishers’ websites (news aggregators collect news stories without writing and creating articles). Though news aggregators tended to be free, such as Google news or Upday, paid models are emerging like PressReader or Readly for readers to pay a single subscription and gain access to several premium offers from various publishers.

➡️ Are you interested in paywall benchmarks across the industry? Read our article about the 36 paywalls from the most popular paid subscription news website

On to the benchmark!

1. The Guardian

• Wall type: donation wall
• Form fields included in the wall: No
• Choice of offers included in the wall: No
• Value proposition: Yes (“three good reasons to support us”)
• List of benefits: No

2. Mail Online

• Wall type: account creation page
• Form fields included in the wall: Yes
• Choice of offers included in the wall: No
• Value proposition: No
• List of benefits: No

3. The Telegraph

• Wall type: full screen paywall
• Form fields included in the wall: No
• Choice of offers included in the wall: Yes
• Value proposition: Yes
• List of benefits: Yes, with a swipeable, mobile-friendly image and text for each benefit
  

4. The Financial Times

• Wall type: full screen, antiscroll paywall banner
• Form fields included in the wall: No
• Choice of offers included in the wall: Yes
• Value proposition: Yes (“leading journalism”)
• List of benefits: No

5. In Your Area

• Wall type: full screen registration wall
• Form fields included in the wall: No
• Choice of offers included in the wall: Yes, option to sign in now or later
• Value proposition: No
• List of benefits: Yes (benefits can be swiped on screen)

Interested in building a paywall or registration wall for your app? Poool can provide you with the tools and expertise to launch a membership and subscription strategy on your apps!

Already a client? Get in touch with your account manager to use wall strategies on apps!

6. The Times & The Sunday Times

• Wall type: full screen paywall
• Form fields included in the wall: No
• Choice of offers included in the wall: No
• Value proposition: No
• List of benefits: Yes

7. Press reader

• Wall type: full screen paywall
• Form fields included in the wall: No
• Choice of offers included in the wall: Yes (free trial, year commitment or single issue payment)
• Value proposition: No
• List of benefits: No

8. Readly

• Wall type: full screen registration wall followed by a paywall (with the option to say ‘not now’)
• Form fields included in the wall: No
• Choice of offers included in the wall: No
• Value proposition: No
• List of benefits: On the paywall, yes

9. Daily Express

• Wall type: full screen, anti-scroll paywall
• Form fields included in the wall: No
• Choice of offers included in the wall: No
• Value proposition: No
• List of benefits: No (simply a mention of unlimited access)
  
  

10. The Sun

• Wall type: full screen, anti-scroll paywall
• Form fields included in the wall: No
• Choice of offers included in the wall: Yes
• Value proposition: No
• List of benefits: No (simply a mention of unlimited access)
  

11. New York Times

• Wall type: paywall and registration wall
• Form fields included in the wall: No
• Choice of offers included in the wall: Yes, option to register or subscribe
• Value proposition: No
• List of benefits: No (simply a mention of unlimited access)

12. Mirror

• Wall type: full screen, anti-scroll registration wall
• Form fields included in the wall: No
• Choice of offers included in the wall: No
• Value proposition: No
• List of benefits: Yes