Memberships, homepage and video: The Sun's three priorities for digital growth

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The Sun outlined its three major growth areas, as it attempts to find a balance between high-volume traffic acquisition and deeper reader engagement.

Speaking at the Newsrewired journalism conference on 13 May 2025, Will Payne, director of digital, says the publication continues reap most of its digital revenue through programmatic advertising on Google Discover - the personalised content feed on mobile devices - and a "resurgent" Facebook.

With the advent of AI-generated search results depriving news websites of referral traffic though, the digital landscape is rapidly changing.

Sun's response? A new pursuit of membership, a strategic homepage refocus, and a dedicated video strategy.

Sun Club membership targets loyal readers

The 'Sun Club' membership, launched earlier this year, targets the publication's most engaged users, offering access to exclusive content, commentary, behind-the-scenes insights, practical news, and special offers.

This subscription model aims to convert loyal readers into paying customers, though Payne acknowledged that a "significant proportion" of The Sun's most valuable, direct audience still won't pay for content. This reality underscores why free content remains important for the publication's overall strategy, even as it deploys a premium approach.

Homepage refocus driven by analytics

The Sun has developed a sophisticated approach to its homepage, traditionally the strongest driver of subscription conversions.

It uses an in-house analytics tool that produces a weighted value score, which is based on metrics like dwell time, recirculation rates, video starts, and programmatic yields. This affects what appears on the homepage and is designed to encourage more habitual reader behavior.

Article quality has become increasingly important in this approach, with elements like maps, graphics, and box-outs contributing to increased dwell time and engagement. The publication continues to emphasize that all writers should be "audience writers" who can flexibly respond to platform trends, with Payne stressing that "audience insights should be baked into everything a digital journalist does."

Video-first commissioning

The Sun's is now commissioning dedicated video projects, shifting away from video being an afterthought or supplementary offering.

This has led to sponsorable episodic formats like "Sun Originals," spanning various shows and content verticals. This approach not only spotlights journalists but also appeals to a new generation of users and provides opportunities to collaborate with influencers.

Payne cited The Sun's Madeleine McCann investigation as a successful example, which was commissioned as a Channel 4 documentary, a rare case of a traditional print publisher producing video for a broadcaster.

This "360 publishing approach" subsequently generated digital articles, social videos and print splashes, as well as conversions to Sun Club subscriptions.

Taken as a whole, though referral traffic strategies are fickle and constantly changing, they still provide a crucial revenue source. However, there is a broader effort at play to free up engagement-focused journalists to concentrate on multi-format opportunities across text, video, and audio.

"By setting up parallel work streams in the newsroom you should be able to drive traffic and revenue in the short term, while building and innovating for the long term," he concludes.

This article was produced with the help of generative AI tool before it was edited by a human.