How News UK’s Times Radio Is Driving Ad Revenue and New Subscribers

One year in, and News UK’s Times Radio is giving The Times of London subscribers a reason to stay. Early signals show the audio outfit, launched last June in order to grow subscribers, is attracting a younger, more female-skewing cohort compared with its print and digital platforms. That, plus a roster of talent including Times journalists and extending ad campaigns into audio, is driving new and recurring ad revenue, even before numbers of its listenership were public. The publisher wouldn't share specific figures. Digital subscribers are growing at The Times and the Sunday Times. As of September, it has 380,000 digital subscribers per its financial earnings, compared to 342,000 in the prior year. To keep up that trajectory, it’s focused on continuing to improve the digital user experience, adding more visually-led stories, more data-led commissioning and keeping churn low, said Will Orr, general manager, Times Newspapers. Simply put, as subscription publishers of all stripes find, that’s by getting new subscribers to use its digital products early and regularly, whether that’s downloading an app, subscribing to author-led newsletters or—increasingly—listening to Times Radio. In order to get a 100% improvement you need to do 100 things 1% better.Will Orr, general manager, Times Newspapers “Radio is a long-term game," said Orr. "You build an audience, a tone of voice and affinity with listeners. We’re a year old and there’s a huge opportunity.” Times Radio's remit is to offer more choice in U.K. talk radio beyond BBC Radio 4 and popular Global-owned station LBC, occupying a more conversational and less confrontational space for a plurality of perspectives, said Orr. The schedule includes breakfast and evening shows with talent, presenters and journalists from inside and outside the Times, as well as popular podcasts. Over 30 commercial partners News UK studies found that 43% of Times Radio listeners are new to The Times brand. Times Radio listeners are younger, skew more female: 50% are aged between 18 and 34 and 55% are female. Instead of the regular spot ads common to commercial radio, Times Radio opts instead for sponsorship opportunities with brands across the schedule. Over its first year, it had 30 commercial partners, including Google, RangeRover, Axa and Sky Arts. Some, like Fortnum and Mason and Singleton Whisky, are new to commercial radio. Others have extended their campaigns from Times platforms to audio. Those ads are getting returns. A well-known high street brand sponsored the Breakfast show, hosted by former BBC presenter Aasmah Mir and Times journalist Stig Abell. Post-campaign research showed the campaign drove a 60% uplift in consideration for the brand among listeners aware of the partnership versus non-listeners. And 83% of listeners said they took some action following the partnership, like visiting a branch or online research, the company said. Plenty of its ad clients have run campaigns before October, when the industry body Radio Joint Audience Research (audio ad buyers’ first choice of trading metric) reported that Times Radio had 637,000 weekly listeners for the third quarter of 2021. News Corp. Shuts Down Knewz But some ad buyers find those RAJAR numbers a little muted, especially the metric that an average 5.5 hours listened per week rather than the overall reach. Long-running talk radio station LBC had an average of 10 hours per week. Broadly, a reason for eschewing regular ad breaks similar to commercial radio—which would include between eight and 10 minutes an hour of ads—in favor of brand partnerships is to drive higher audience numbers. “The idea that spots put people off is a bit of nonsense,” said Charlie Yeates, partner at MediaCom, adding that clients haven’t been clamoring GroupM to learn when The Times radio will further open up its ad model, but they all state that they love the brand. A less binary paywall Understanding how audio fits into the subscription journey is a tough circle to square, which News UK, The New York Times and Vox Media are all trying to figure out. The Times found that 78% of existing subscribers say Times Radio gives their subscription more value. “In order to get a 100% improvement you need to do 100 things 1% better," said Orr. "Subscriptions are like that, it’s not complicated.” Presenters also promote articles like in-depth foreign reporting, high-profile interviews and lifestyle features and guides to listeners. Coupled with this are flash deals on subscriptions. While it’s tough to track fully, it estimates that at least several thousand subscriptions have been taken out by people listening to Times Radio and who are new to The Times. Piers Morgan Signs Global Deal with News Corp, Will Have Nightly Fox Nation Show Orr accepts that churn management needs constant experimentation around price points and subscriber propositions. The Times, which has historically had a pretty solid paywall where people register with an email address to get access to a few articles a week, is considering flexing that. “It might not be tomorrow, but it’s intentional,” said Orr. “We see a world where the paywall is less binary, where we give prospects more opportunities to sample the product before the paywall appears.”