Newspapers went through a critical transformation over the last decade that saw physical newspapers go the way of the dodo in favor of digital alternatives.
While the web was "the" digital platform for news for a long time, and still is for many, the popularity of news apps has been rising consistently over the last few years.
This year, the top news apps have hit a new all-time revenue high signaling this trend is here to stay.
I rounded up the top 10 highest-earning news apps in the App Store and Google Play to analyze their revenue. The set includes The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Economist, The Guardian, Fox Nation, Epoch Times, and CNBC.
Net revenue for the group rose 10x since 2018, from about $4M in Q1 of 2018 to $42M in Q1 of 2024, according to our estimates. Downloads, on the other hand, didn't. Downloads did rise during covid years, but have since dropped. In fact, downloads in Q1 of 2024 were just a few hundred thousand higher than downloads in Q1 of 2018.
We've seen a similar trend across many segments, where downloads are dropping but revenue is increasing, thanks for subscriptions and companies investing in optimization.
The New York Times leads the pack in terms of revenue. Our estimates show it brought in $14M of net revenue - net of store fees - in the first quarter of 2024. The Wall Street Journal followed with $9M in estimated net revenue, followed by The Guardian with $4.4M in estimated net revenue.
The rest were all above a million except for the New Yorker, at the bottom of the list, with $890K in Q1.
Given this is an election year I expect to see the total continuing to rise as we head into November. The real question is, what can news apps innovate on to get more engagement?
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