Subscriptions pages for the Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Scotsman and Bloomberg Media on 23 January 2026
Digital news subscriptions prices have increased by an average of 3% in the UK for the second year running, according to Press Gazette analysis.
However many publications were offering discounts in January of up to 89%, indicating that many consumers may be able to avoid paying the full price.
Of 23 publications included in Press Gazette’s dataset both in January 2025 and January 2026, ten increased their annual digital subscription prices in the past year.
Six saw no change in annual price and seven reduced the cost of their digital subscription.
As a result the average percentage change among these 23 digital news subscriptions was 3%, close to the UK inflation rate of 3.6% (2.7% in the US) over the past 12 months.
This contrasts to UK national newspaper cover prices, which were up by an average of 10% in the past year as publishers look to make up for falling newsstand sales and advertising.
From January 2024 to January 2025 the average percentage change across 21 publications was also 3%. But from 2023 to 2024 the price increases were much higher, at an average of 19%.
Press Gazette looked at the most comparable standard full-price digital subscription prices rather than premium packages with extra components. We also used full-priced packages rather than any discounts or trial periods (scroll down for more on these).
The biggest increase in price in the past year was at the Financial Times, whose standard digital option was already the most costly in our ranking. The FT’s full-priced standard digital subscription was £468 in January 2026, up from £369 in January 2025, although it was offering £279 for the first year.
The FT’s 26.8% increase was narrowly beaten in percentage terms by Bloomberg Media, which saw a 27.2% annual price increase from £235 to £299 (with a first-year trial of £115).
The publishers keeping their annual prices the same were: The Telegraph (although its first-year offer has decreased from £49 to £29-39), The Independent, The New York Times, Daily Mail+, The i Paper and the Belfast Telegraph.
The biggest decrease in annual price was at Iconic Media titles The Scotsman and Yorkshire Post, both down from £129.90 to £69.90. They have undergone an ownership change in the past year as National World was taken over by Malcolm Denmark’s Media Concierge.
If we left your news outlet off our list and you feel they should be included, please get in touch with [email protected] and we will add if appropriate.
Digital news subscriptions in 2026: Monthly costs and trial offers
Despite the 3% average increase in annual price across 23 news publishers, monthly costs to consumers stayed steady (a 0.1% change).
Among the 23 publications we could compare year on year, ten saw a monthly price increase, eight stayed the same and five decreased.
The biggest increase in monthly cost was at The Economist, rising 31% or £5.65 from £18.25 per month to £23.90.
The largest decreases in monthly price were at Iconic Media’s Yorkshire Post/The Scotsman (almost halving from £12.99 to £6.99) followed by The New World (formerly The New European) which dropped from £9.99 per month to £6 in the past year.
Most of the publishers included in this analysis offered large trial discounts in January when the prices were recorded.
The highest discounts (when comparing offers for the first year, rather than a smaller time frame) were at The Telegraph and Mail+ Editions (the Daily Mail’s digital newspaper edition).
Audiences to both newsbrands could secure the first year for 89% less than the full price. Press Gazette saw offers available for The Telegraph for both £29 and £39 for the first year, compared to a full annual price of £269. Mail+ Editions has a full annual price of £191.88 but was offering the first month free then £1.99 for the rest of the first year.
Two other newsbrands also offered discounts of at least 80%. Business Insider, usually at £110.64 (converted from US dollars) for the first year, was offering £21.30 for a year – a discount of 81%. And The Wall Street Journal, which normally costs £179.88, was offering £3 per month for one year – down 80%.
Press Gazette counted six other publications with discounts of at least 70% for the first year, and ten more with discounts of at least 17%.
Not all publications offered Press Gazette a discount. The full-priced holdouts included: The Atlantic, The Free Press, The Guardian, DC Thomson’s Press & Journal and The Courier, GB News, Iliffe’s Kent Online and The Jewish Chronicle.
New entrants to Press Gazette analysis
Several publishers have been added to Press Gazette’s annual analysis for the first time this year as they built digital subscriptions businesses to reduce reliance on traffic and advertising revenue.
The Sun, for example, launched a paywall for “premium” content in February 2025 which costs £1.99 or £10 for a year.
Its rival the Daily Mail, which launched its Mail+ digital subscription for premium content a year earlier , costs £6.99 per month (no change from last year). However it was offering one month free then £1.99 per month for the rest of the first year. The Mail appears in Press Gazette’s table of prices twice as it also offers the Mail+ Editions subscription for the digital version of its newspapers.
Reach regionals including the Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo and Wales Online have now launched a similar style of paywall costing £4.99 per month or £39.99 per year (with an offer for one month at £1).
And GB News has a paid membership with additional content which costs £5 per month or £54 per year.
Press Gazette included in The Guardian (£12 per month or £120 per year) in the tables because although it keeps all of its content free online and asks for voluntary donations, it has a digital subscription that includes full access to its app which is otherwise restricted, as well as other perks like ad-free reading.
Most of the rest of the subscriptions included in Press Gazette’s analysis are either hard paywalls or metered paywalls across the entire website.
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