• by Ray Schultz , December 8, 2022

Only 19% of U.S. consumers now pay for digital subscriptions, according to "Succeeding With Subscriptions," a study by Toolkits and National Research Group.   

Of those polled, 54% have never subscribed and 19% previously did so. The remainder don’t know. 

But digital subscriptions are expected to generate over $11 billion by 2025, the study states. 

By generation, 61% of Gen Z has two to five subscriptions, narrowly beating millennials and Gen X, at 60% apiece. Only 43% of boomers fall into this category. 

But boomers are mostly likely to own one subscription (55%), versus 30% for Gen X, 23% for millennials and 27% for Gen Z. At 17%, millennials lead when it comes to have five or more subscriptions.  

That doesn’t mean content is equally used: 46% subscribe to at least one publication they access less than once per month.  

But, in general, they say they access content: 

• Multiple times per day—32%
• Daily—26% 
• Multiple times per week—26%
• Once per week—9% 
• Less than once per week—5% 
• Never or almost never—3%

Those who subscribe are paying for these types of content:

• News and current affairs—37% 
• Media and entertainment—33% 
• Sports—26%
• Cooking—22% 
• Lifestyle—22% 
• Hobbies and niche interests—20%
• Science and technology—20%
• Business and finance—20% 
• Fashion—18% 
• Kids, family and parenting—18%
• Podcast networks—15% 
• Art, design and literature—14% 
• Blogs—11%

These are additional findings from a survey of 2,509 consumers conducted in August 2022 by Toolkit and National Research Group. In November, they reported that 53% of consumers attempt to bypass paywalls on publishers’ websites. And 69% avoid clicking through when they know the site has one.