It’s the beginning of 2024 and there’s great news. Gulf News was awarded the top prize by the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-Ifra). We have won gold for Best Digital Subscription Initiative 2023 – a global recognition of our decision to go behind a paywall. This prestigious honour is part of the Digital Media Awards Middle East 2023.
A juror for the award wrote: “This initiative has a strong opportunity to reach out to specific audiences in the UAE, especially with the focus on local news. The idea … has a strong element to it that I believe can expand in the future.”
On April 20, 2021, Gulf News launched its digital subscription. It was a strategic decision. Many were sceptical. However, Gulf News believed – in itself, its content, its journalism, and its readership.
Like always, we dared to take the first step, to push for change and define the future of online media in the region. The digital subscription journey has been one filled with insights, challenges, and the need to be extremely agile. The online paying customer is demanding, discerning and aware. Success, although not easy to come by on this path, was achieved but it is still in its nascent stages, with miles to go.
Gulf News always adopts changes and faces challenges to keep its leadership in the industry. There were many forces against going behind a paywall - be it from the advertising clients and readers themselves. Many were sceptical about the success possible in turning digital into a revenue-making platform.
“The journey of the paywall, launched in 2021, was challenging and the learning curve steep for both our staff and journalists.
“The number of subscribers we have today is very encouraging, although the environment and readership habits in this region is more used to consuming everything online for free.
As Abdul Hamid Ahmad, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Gulf News, puts it: “Yet again, Gulf News proves its leadership among news publishers by winning gold for its Digital Subscription Initiative.
“We are the first news media house to take this direction in the region, especially with news consumption patterns changing globally. The readership decline in print is noticed everywhere and digital consumption is growing.
“Gulf News always adopts changes and faces challenges to keep its leadership in the industry. There were many forces against going behind a paywall - be it from the advertising clients and readers themselves. Many were sceptical about the success possible in turning digital into a revenue-making platform.
“The journey of the paywall, launched in 2021, was challenging and the learning curve steep for both our staff and journalists.
“The number of subscribers we have today is very encouraging, although the environment and readership habits in this region is more used to consuming everything online for free.
“Our traditional readers for the printed newspaper need to pay to read the news. By using the same logic, we sent a message not only to our readers but also to the industry that news consumption online should have a price on it because there is a cost to content generation, producing and maintaining the website 24 X 7. The numbers we reached in digital subscription, which is above 80,000, prove that the readership is going to change – sooner or later they will accept paying for digital as they did for print, especially as charge for consumption is much smaller compared to the print subscription price.”
At a time when news websites in the region are giving away their content for free, we decided to go behind a paywall because of increasing costs. But the main driving factor was that we knew we serve our readers the content they want and that has a cost. We are confident of our content because it is in-depth and serves our readers. Hence, to maintain that quality journalism, we had to share a part of the cost with our audience. The support we have received from our audience is way beyond our expectations. This means two things. They believe in our content. They believe we serve them well as readers. If you go behind a paywall, you must have belief in yourself as a media house and believe that your audience trusts you. We are grateful and proud that our audience has given us this trust, not just today, but from the day we began our journey, first as a newspaper and today as a leader in print and digital journalism. The award is testimony to the trust our readers have shown us.
As per a Reuters Institute and Oxford University report, “More than two-thirds of leading newspapers (69 per cent) across the EU [European Union] and US are operating some kind of online paywall, a trend that has increased since 2017, especially in the US where this has increased from 60 to 76 per cent. “
Abdul Hamid Ahmad adds, “We believe that over 40 per cent of top global news houses have chosen to go behind a paywall – sooner or later the rest will choose to follow this path because you cannot depend on just the ad revenue. We have witnessed the massive decline in print revenue, previously.
“We appreciate WAN –Ifra for the recognition given to us because that is recognition of our reader, who make us face challenges with them and always give us their support.
"Gulf News is identified by its unique content that differentiates us from the others. We go beyond the news with our many sections such as Living in UAE, Your Money, Podcasts, Special Reports, Golf in UAE, Food, UAE Success Stories, Friday, Best Buys, Going Out and Games that serve our readers. This ensures they have a complete experience and can find everything they need on gulfnews.com - the very reason why our readers have made the Digital Subscription Initiative a success."
News subscriptions is not something readers easily pay for. Using third party loyalty programs to incentivise the subscription purchase decision makes it easier for readers to subscribe. Partnerships and collaborative models are the cornerstone of business survival, fostering innovation, resilience, and collective growth in an ever-evolving market landscape.
The WAN-IFRA awards are a testament to Gulf News' dedication to an innovation-first approach within the media industry of the region. These awards highlight our commitment to pioneering innovation and providing exceptional content experiences to our cherished readers. This significant achievement stands as a testament to the dedication and hard work of our team, bolstered by the trust and loyalty of our esteemed readership.
As part of the Digital Media Awards Middle East 2023, Gulf News was also awarded silver under the Best Newsletter category.
“We want to thank WAN-Ifra for the silver prize and recognition of our newsletters, which are unique in their simplicity and clarity, delivered every day for our online subscribers and readers registered to receive them.
“In fact, we urge all our readers to subscribe to our award-winning newsletter service to get the top headlines into their inbox and stay on top of the news always."
