The Observer has launched a subscription model for its digital business alongside a new website and app.
Digital subscriptions cost £16 per month or £144 per year, though readers under 35 qualify for a 50% discount. All plans include a one-month paid trial costing just £1.
Meanwhile, combined print and digital subscriptions will also be available.
“From today, for the first time in its 233-year history, you can buy The Observer any day of the week,” editor-in-chief James Harding wrote in The Observer. “You can subscribe daily online and, of course, still buy the paper every Sunday.”
The development is the first major milestone for the paper since Tortoise Media purchased it from Guardian Media Group in April.
Its fledgling commercial business stumbled out of the gates after Tortoise acquired it. As The Media Leader reported, The Observer‘s first director of advertising, Guy Edmunds, quit the role after just a handful of days on the job.
In September, the title named Mike Duffy, former EMEA sales strategy lead at Time magazine, as its first chief commercial officer. He took over a commercial effort that, until the summer, had still been handled by Guardian staff as part of the title’s ownership transition.
Duffy told The Media Leader that the new subscription model is positioned to benefit potential advertisers.
“Advertisers are seeking spaces where attention and trust remain high,” he said. “Our subscription model reinforces exactly that, an audience of committed readers who value quality journalism, and a platform where brands can communicate with confidence.”
In an interview with The Media Leader ahead of The Observer‘s relaunch under Tortoise Media this spring, co-CEO Richard Furness indicated that the paywall would be “dynamic” and “smart”.
Subscriptions are likely to be key to the success of both The Observer and its parent Tortoise, the latter of which has never been profitable. In its most recent financial filing, the publisher reported a loss of £3.8m for 2023, an improvement over the £4.6m it lost in 2022.
The Observer, meanwhile, contributed £3.4m to Guardian Media Group in the year to August 2024, excluding shared costs. However, Guardian Media Group CEO Anna Bateson had warned staff that the title would be loss-making within three years, hence the effort to seek a buyer.
The title’s advertising business, Furness previously indicated, is now focusing on integrated brand partnerships and direct sales rather than relying on programmatic, with leadership apparently keen to maintain a high-quality user experience in digital and print alike.
“We want to create a really premium destination for brands,” Furness said in April. “And I think you do that by pushing direct sales, not going down the programmatic route.”
Richard Furness on building a new Observer that’s ‘proudly a second read’
