• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

Newspaper publishers from The New York Times to Gannett routinely release their digital subscription numbers. In some cases, the celebrated growth makes up, in part, for print declines.  

The Boston Globe, the renowned New England daily, is going against this trend.

The Globe has stopped reporting digital subscriber totals to the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), according to Boston Business Journal. The reason is that its subscriber rate has slowed. And its print subscriptions have been declining. 

“We recently decided to focus our AAM reporting on print-circulation numbers based on feedback from advertisers and media buyers who primarily use the report for this information,” a Globe spokesperson told Boston Business Journal. 

It is hard to fathom why a big city newspaper like the Globe would be suffering a digital growth slowdown, given that it serves a technically proficient audience in a city filled with universities, including MIT.  

Is the Globe losing ground to social media, or to more specialized publications? Is it simply not marketing subscriptions very well, or are people put off by the Globe paywall?

The Boston Business Journal writes that the Globe reported print numbers only from October 2024 through March 2025. 

In fairness, the Globe told the Boston Business Journal that its digital subscription growth is steady, that it is comfortable with its progress and that it will share digital numbers periodically, like when it hits big milestones.   

In the last report to include digital, the Globe said it had gained roughly 1,500 new online subscribers from April to September in 2024. 

Maybe this is an unfair comparison. But the New York Times reported it had added 250,000 digital-only subscribers in Q1, and now has 11.86 million subscribers overall, including 600,000 print. This was included with its Q1 financials.

Are other publications also pulling back on reporting digital? The AAM had not responded to a query at deadline.