The newspaper business has been in financial trouble for a long time now thanks to the internet and social media.
On mobile, this trend seems to have switched direction over the last few years as App Store revenue for the top newspapers rose 370% since 2020.
I tracked revenue for the highest earning newspaper apps in the US App Store, which include the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, going all the way back to 2020 to see how it changed over time.
In Q1 of 2020, just as covid hit, the three brought in $4.4M of net revenue from the App Store, according to our estimates. Net means after Apple took its share. Looking at the entire year, revenue was growing, but not fast.
The three ended 2020 with $5.4M of net revenue from the App Store.
By the end of 2021, however, revenue started growing faster. The three saw an increase in quarterly revenue of 78%, and ended 2021 with $9.6M of net revenue in Q4, according to our estimates.
But it got better! Revenue continued to grow and peaked in Q3 of 2022 with $21.2M of net revenue from the App Store. An increase of 281% from Q1 of 2020.
Revenue didn't stay as high for too long and dropped to $16.3M by Q4. Still significantly higher than any other quarter prior. Q1 of 2023 saw a decent increase, up 16% from December.
In the same period, quarterly downloads dropped 40%.
This trend is now fairly common in the App Store. Fewer downloads but more revenue. Why? Because more apps are now investing into optimizing the conversion rate from a download to a paying user.
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