Bonnier News Local Reports Strong Digital Subscription Growth
Bonnier News Local is experiencing a sustained period of success, boasting around 500,000 total subscribers.A key driver of this success is a notable shift from print to digital subscriptions, with digital subscribers now comprising 62 percent of the total – a change achieved within the last decade.
This transition has seen digital subscriber numbers climb from 20,000 to over 300,000 across Bonnier News Local’s numerous titles in Sweden, which has a population of approximately 10.6 million.
digital subscription revenues have also demonstrated robust growth, increasing from 301 million Swedish krona (approximately 27.3 million euros) in 2021 to 492 million Krona (around 44.7 million euros) in 2024. Forecasts predict further growth to over 619 million Krona (about 56.3 million euros) in 2025, a figure CEO Pia Rehnquist indicated is likely to be exceeded.
While growth is slowing from a previous rate of 15-20 percent, Bonnier News Local is increasingly focused on maximizing Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).The company is also projecting a tenfold increase in EBITA from 2023 to 2028.
### Bonnier News Local: Centralisation and a focus on local children’s stories drive growth
Logged-in page views within the target group have risen from 3.6 million to 4.6 million in the past year, and Rehnquist noted: “Writing about children in the local environment is something I can recommend.”
‘We want to be big, and we need to be very efficient’
A key part of their strategy is also based on scale.
Bonnier News Local is a big company with a lot of local newspapers within it. Parent publisher Bonnier News is even larger and includes some of the biggest news brands in Sweden,such as Dagens Nyheter and Expressen,as well as many titles in 11 more European countries.
“That’s a very crucial part of the strategy – that scale is certain in this type of media business. we want to be big, and we need to be very efficient in the way that we do things,” Rehnquist said.
“We’re a big company, and economically, we are in a very good position right now,” she said. “But we need to succeed as what we do is so extremely critically important. That’s why we need to succeed, and I think that’s why we have succeeded – because it hasn’t been easy.”
“It’s not easily done. There’s no one way to do it. we use a lot of toolboxes,” she noted.
Journalism decisions are in the hands of the local editors-in-chief, almost everything else involving the running of Bonnier News Local’s news titles is centralised and co-ordinated, she said.
WAN-IFRA has been actively working with news organizations to embrace a digital-first mindset for approximately seven to eight years. This involves a fundamental shift in how news is gathered, produced, and distributed.
Looking ahead, Rehnquist emphasized that the journey is far from over. “We have come a long way, but we have only just begun,” she said. She highlighted the need to attract and retain younger audiences and to maintain brand strength and uniqueness in a rapidly evolving landscape increasingly influenced by AI. Remaining relevant, she stressed, is vital for both democratic principles and commercial success.
Image of WAN-IFRA’s newsroom Summit in Copenhagen at JP/Politikens Hus
(WAN-IFRA’s Newsroom Summit took place on 18-19 november in Copenhagen at JP/Politikens Hus.)
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