●The Guardian now has 500,000 regular paying supporters, made up of members and subscribers across print and digital.
● In addition, more than 300,000 individual one-off contributions have been received in the last year.
● Overall, 800,000 readers have supported the Guardian financially in the past 12 months.
The Guardian today announces it now has 500,000 regular paying supporters - made up of members and subscribers in more than 100 countries who make regular financial contributions to the publication.
The Guardian has more than doubled its regular paying supporter base in the past 12 months. Approximately 80% of these supporters take digital subscriptions or memberships, with the remaining 20% subscribing to Guardian News and Media’s (GNM) print publications.
In mid-2016 the Guardian began offering readers the option to make one-off contributions to support its journalism. In the last 12 months it has received more than 300,000 individual 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.
As part of a three 3-year strategy launched in 2016, the Guardian is focused on growing reader revenues - building on the strong relationship with readers rooted in the Guardian’s journalism, ethos, unique ownership structure and global outlook. A key goal of the strategy is for Guardian News & Media to break even at operating level by 2018-19, helping to safeguard Guardian journalism in perpetuity.
Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief, Guardian News & Media, said:
“Now more than ever, the world needs progressive journalism that is committed to facts. The most important relationship the Guardian has is with its readers, so we are encouraged and cheered by the hundreds of thousands of people supporting Guardian journalism.
“We must continue to earn our readers’ trust and support - which will will be the bedrock of our future success and sustainability.”
David Pemsel, CEO, Guardian Media Group, said:
“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.
“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.”
The Guardian has no proprietor and just one shareholder, The Scott Trust, meaning that any financial gains are reinvested into its journalism. This unique ownership structure - and the financial support of loyal readers and contributors - means that the Guardian is free to publish the quality, agenda-setting, independent journalism it is renowned for.
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For more information please contact:
media.enquiries@theguardian.com or 020 3353 3696
Notes to editors
About Guardian News & Media
Guardian News & Media (GNM) publishes theguardian.com, one of the world’s leading English-language newspaper websites. Traffic from outside of the UK now represents around two-thirds of the Guardian’s total digital audience. In the UK, GNM publishes the Guardian newspaper six days a week, first published in 1821, and the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, The Observer.
The Guardian is renowned for its agenda-setting journalism including, most recently, the Panama Papers investigation as well as the Pulitzer Prize and Emmy-winning NSA revelations.