The Sun attracts 117,000 paying subscribers to its Sun+ digital service

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/dec/06/sun-paying-subscribers-paywall

The Sun newspaper has attracted 117,000 paying subscribers to its £2-a-week digital service. News UK's tabloid UK's biggest selling paper, reached 100,000 digital subscribers in four months – it took stablemates the Times and Sunday Times a year to reach the same level of paying customers after their online content went behind a paywall in 2010. The Sun needed to attract more than 350,000 paying subscribers to Sun+. The reason why they need to attract 350,000 users is because they will cover their loss, which they made in online advertising. The editor of the Sun, David Dinsmore Said that The Sun was not looking to target overseas users like the Daily Mail. "In reality our marketplace is very much the UK at the moment, we have 60 million people here to focus on," he said. "We are in the process of hiring a social media team, we have been remiss [in this area] in the past. It has been an ad hoc affair. We are a product across all platforms and it is key to have that social-media marketing opportunity.

News UK revealed some details of the subscriber base of Sun+. The biggest single group (30%) are 25 to 34, which Katie Vanneck-Smith, chief marketing officer at News UK, said "blows out the myth young people won't pay for [digital] content". Almost half (47%) of sign-ups for the paid service are via mobile. The Suns Subscribers are split between 60/40. 60 Males and 40 females. Sun+ subscribers are split 60/40 between men and women, although this is expected to balance out to an extent once the football promotion slows down, and there is a "slight" London bias to sign ups, with the capital's denizens considered to be early adopters.

My view: From my prospective i think that The Sun will cover all their loss with the money from their new subscribers. If they carry on setting targets and achieving them targets then they will beat other newspapers online. They will also need to take in consideration that they need something on their online content which will attract the females, as they have more of a male audience because of the football. So if they have something on their for females, it would balance out the the number.