The Economist plans to introduce a new subscription tier for its podcasts, called Economist Podcasts+, priced at $4.90 per month. This is a significant move by the publication because audio has become the fastest-growing platform for The Economist Group’s audience. The company aims to leverage this momentum to boost subscription revenue – their primary income source.
Subscribers to this new tier will gain exclusive access to all current and future Economist podcasts, with the change scheduled for mid-October. Current subscribers will receive Podcasts+ at no extra charge, while non-subscribers can pre-order the new tier at a 50% discount until launch.
Access to the paid podcast tier will be available through The Economist’s website and app.
Most shows – except for the flagship daily program, The Intelligence – will be behind the paywall. Some sample episodes and limited-series podcasts, however, may remain free.
The Economist plans to maintain ad revenue for the subscription tier with underwriters, while traditional podcast ads will continue for The Intelligence and some free shows.
The Economist – About The Publication
- The Economist debuted its first podcast in 2006.
- ‘The Intelligence’, the flagship daily news show, has earned over 630 million downloads since its 2019 launch.
- The Economist now publishes nearly a dozen original shows, with an average of 4.8 million monthly unique listeners.
- During its last fiscal year, the Economist earned over $470 million in revenue, with approximately 60% from non-newsstand subscriptions – the rest of the revenue came from newsstand sales, advertising, research, consulting services, education services, and events.
- The firm relaunched its subscription daily news briefing app, Espresso, last year.
- The trend of putting podcasts behind paywalls is growing among publishers, with The New York Times and NPR also experimenting with subscription-based audio content.
- The Economist aims to avoid past industry mistakes by not offering free content on other platforms.