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August 10, 2009

Which? reveals 11% rise in online subscriptions

By Dominic Ponsford

Just days after Rupert Murdoch announced plans to start charging for online news – consumer organisation Which? has revealed new figures revealing the success of its subscription website.

Which? revealed that its total subscriptions in the year to the end of June were up 2.5 per cent to more than 1.1 million.

Subscribers to Which.co.uk rose by 11 per cent to 216,000.

The Which? portfolio of magazines is entirely funded by sales rather than advertising, offering independent consumer advice with a strong element of rigorous product testing.

Until recently, Which? magazines were only available via subscription. But last summer the organisations started distributing selected titles in Sainsburys. It says that it has so far sold 70,000 copies of Which? Car and around 13,000 copies of Which? Money via this route.

Accordining to internal figures, sales of the flagship Which? magazine were slightly up year on year standing at 519,257 in June 2009 (compared with 515,521 in June 2008).

Which? Computing sold 159,630 (150,011); Which? Gardening 61,326 (62,628); Which? Holiday 71,383 (81,771); Which? Money 52,259 (52,737), Which? Legal Service 44,651 (40,452).

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