The state of news subscription bundles, in 5 charts

Here is a look at the state of bundled news subscriptions, in five charts.

A tough sell
Historically, this is an idea that has not gained a lot of traction. While the share of people willing to pay for news varies by country, in most of the world, a majority of people are disinclined to pay for news. The picture gets even bleaker when examining subscriptions. In the United States, 8 percent of readers pay for some kind of recurring digital news subscription, a number that puts the U.S. in the upper echelons among select Western countries monitored by Reuters.

But things may be looking up
In the past 10 months, there was a sharp uptick in digital payments for news in the U.S. following Donald Trump’s election. It’s worth noting, however, that a lot of the activity that fueled this surge came in the form of one-off payments and donations; the overall subscription rate for the U.S. remained steady, at 8 percent, also per Reuters.

Little traction yet
The bundled products that many of these startups aspire to, Netflix and Spotify, routinely rank among the most popular apps in Apple’s App Store and in Google Play. But so far, many of these products are having trouble gaining traction, even in the news category, according to App Annie data.

The price is right?
With little traction in the space, a wide array of price points are being tested in the market. Inkl, an Australian startup that said it intends to become “Spotify for news,” charges 15 Australian dollars ($12) per month, while Scroll, which its founder said obsessed over the price, charges $4.99 per month.

Money to burn
That said, some startups selling bundled news subscriptions have plenty of cash on hand. Investments from major investors including KKR have filled the coffers of startups like Texture, which offers a subscription bundle of magazines, and Medium, which has pivoted from being a publishing platform into a membership-driven service.