The Irish News wins Future of Media Award for digital transformation
24th Sep 2026
The Irish News has been recognised at the 2026 Future of Media Awards, winning the Reader Revenue Strategy award following significant growth in its digital subscription business.
The Belfast-based news publisher received the award at the Press Gazette Future of Media Awards in London, which celebrate editorial, commercial and product excellence across the digital news industry.
Judges described The Irish News as “an inspiring story of newsroom and revenue transformation which is helping secure the future of a great regional news brand.”
The award recognises the transformation of The Irish News’ approach to reader revenue, bringing editorial, subscriptions and marketing, product and technology together around a shared strategy to grow paying readership and build a more sustainable model for independent journalism.
Between June 2025 and May 2026, The Irish News grew its digital subscriber base by 32%, while digital subscription revenue increased by 24.3% year on year. Annual subscriptions also increased significantly over the period, strengthening the proportion of recurring, longer-term reader revenue supporting the business.
The strategy has put journalism at the centre of subscriber growth, with political exclusives, investigations, Gaelic Games coverage and distinctive Irish News journalists helping to attract and retain paying readers.
This has been supported by continued investment in the digital subscription experience, including new paywall technology, registration journeys, first-party audience data, subscriber onboarding and lifecycle communications designed to build stronger, longer-term relationships with readers.
Editor-in-Chief Chris Sherrard said:
“The Irish News has always been about journalism that earns a place in people’s lives. Our digital strategy starts from that same principle: readers recognise what is valuable to them, and our job is to make that value clear, deliver it consistently and build a lasting relationship with them.
“We are not trying to persuade people to pay simply for access to a website. We are asking them to invest in something that helps them understand the world around them; that holds people to account, tells stories others cannot and gives our readers something they can’t get elsewhere.
“That is why this award means so much. It recognises not just growth in digital subscriptions, but the work being done across The Irish News to turn the value of what we do into a sustainable future for independent news.”
He added: “Our journalists and many others have contributed to that transformation, and we are only beginning to see what is possible.”
The Irish News continues to invest in its digital offering, including its website, app, digital edition and subscriber experience, alongside the journalism at the heart of the title.
The Future of Media Awards are organised by Press Gazette and recognise excellence across digital news media in the UK and internationally. Other 2026 winners included The Times, The Economist, The Guardian and Sky News.
