There is a Chinese proverb saying “may you live in interesting times”. This has certainly been the case for 2020. Unsurprisingly, this has also led to an increased interest in news. This week we take a closer look at how the digital newspapers are affected by the changes in consumer behaviour. Mediavision recognizes a clear push of digital newspapers but also that willingness to pay for news in increasing.

Digital newspaper subscriptions (i e without a print copy) have grown quickly in 2020, reflecting both an eventful year and a general push from the industry. Households’ willingness to pay for digital newspapers is also increasing. Mediavision will soon present a Nordic analysis of household spend on media and today we share some Swedish findings.

Both uptake and spend is increasing. 13% of the Swedish households now subscribe to a digital newspaper. Older households are more likely to sign up for a subscription and the oldest segment (here 65-74-year-olds) attains the highest penetration (16%). This clearly differentiates digital newspapers from other media categories, normally biased towards younger demos. Most likely, this reflects the higher news interest among the older. The curve is clearly U-formed, with the youngest and oldest showing the highest penetration. Close to 90% of the subscriptions are paid for, which is high in comparison, also implying a high willingness to pay.

The transition to digital is estimated to accelerate in the coming 12 months. Mediavision analysis shows a substantially higher churn intention for traditional print than for digital newspapers. Also, purchase intentions are higher for digital. This suggests that digital subscriptions will increase significantly and represent a considerably larger share of the total subscriber base soon. To conclude, digitalization is the name of the game also in the newspaper industry.