The Times claims 100,000 paying digital subscribers

According to a statement by the company yesterday evening, The Times and Sunday Times have 101,036 monthly digital subscribers across the web, iPad and Kindle.

This figure, News International claims, has grown 28% from the 79,000 reported at the end of February.

Overall, The Times has more than 250,000 subscribers paying for either the print or digital offerings.

CEO Rebekah Brooks says: “One year on from launching the paywall, we’ve proved people are willing to pay for quality journalism in digital formats. Many doubted if our strategy would be successful; here is unequivocal proof it’s moving in that direction.”

News International has also claimed The Times is downloaded onto an average of 35,000 iPads every day, 31,000 for The Sunday Times.

This is a significant jump on figures cited by Sunday Times production editor Simon Regan-Edwards during a presentation at the World E-Reading Congress conference in May. He was reported saying The Times iPad app had 25,000 daily readers, while the Sunday Times version had 22,000.

Across other national newspaper publishers, readership figures for mobile platforms are patchy, with titles reporting download figures but few revealing usage statistics.

Earlier this month, The Guardian claimed its iPhone app had been downloaded 400,000 times and generated 67,000 active subscriptions since relaunching in January. The app cost £2.39 to download when launched in November 2009. The latest version offers limited access to Guardian content for free but charges a subscription for full access.

The newspaper’s website also saw access from mobile devices more than double in the last year, to over 10% of its total traffic.

Meanwhile, The Financial Times is looking to boost its 206,892 paying digital subscribers with a formal social media strategy and dedicated investment. It passed 200,000 subscribers in January, up 71% year on year.

UK number one Mail Online has seen its mobile audience grow from 1.5m to 7.18m unique monthly users in the 12 months to April.

It launched its iPad app in April, with advertisers including BT Internet, Ford, Lloyds, M&S, Morrisons and SpecSavers.

The brands, some of which are among the biggest display ad spenders in the UK, bought into three-month deals, giving them iPad-specific large-format display advertising with analytics on a par with online reporting, Bromley said. The efforts had already generated six-figure revenue for Mail Online.

Earlier this week, News International announced a new managing editor structure across its four titles, indicating there would be editorial rationalisation and sharing of resources.

Under the changes, there will be a single managing editor for The Times and Sunday Times, and another for The Sun and News of the World. Each title has previously had its own managing editor.

Richard Caseby was appointed group managing editor for The Sun and News of the World, while Anoushka Healy was been appointed group managing editor for The Times and The Sunday Times.

This story first appeared on New Media Age. For more digital stories and analysis from NMA click here now