Proving that shaking the begging tin works, the Guardian now has 500,000 regular paying ‘supporters’, made up of members and subscribers.
In addition, more than 300,000 individual one-off contributions have been received in the last year, the newsbrand said this week.
The news comes as the latest ABC circulation figures show sales of the newspaper have dropped to just 147,370 – a decline of -6.6% year on year. However, online readership has increased 17.4%.
Overall, the publisher said 800,000 readers have supported the Guardian financially in the past 12 months.
The Guardian began offering readers the option to make one-off contributions to support its journalism in 2016. In the last 12 months it has received contributions from readers in over 140 countries, resulting in revenue of “several million pounds”.
The Guardian first launched membership in the UK in 2014, launching the offering in the US in 2015 and Australia in 2016.
“Building deeper relationships with our readers has been a critical part of our three-year strategy and we are pleased with how this is progressing so far,” said David Pemsel, CEO, Guardian Media Group, the newsbrand’s parent company.
“We cannot be complacent, and we have much more to do. Over the next two years we will continue to establish firm foundations which will secure the Guardian’s financial and editorial independence in perpetuity.”
Last year GMG announced it is looking to shave off more than £53 million from its £268 million annualised cost base in an effort to offset both declining print revenues and slower-than-expected growth in digital revenues, which no longer sustain outgoings.
As part of that plan, GMG signed a contract with Trinity Mirror in the summer to take on the responsibility of printing both Guardian and Observer newspapers from early 2018 in tabloid format, which will see the closure of GMG’s Berliner printing sites in Trafford and Stratford which it bought for £80 million in 2005.
The publisher also completed the sale of its 22.4% stake in Ascential for £239 million.
Around 300 jobs have been lost so far.
