The Times and the Sunday Times hit 500,000 subscribers in 2012 , thanks in part to monitoring reader responses to various subscription offers . Over the past year , digital - only sign - ups entered print for the first time , rising 20 % to date . “It’s improved the user experience and the aesthetics of the site, which drives conversion, and — in parallel — it’s changed the commercial strategy, the pricing and the introductory offers.” The Times also increased its registered - access user pool , where readers sign up to read two articles a week , to 3.75 million . The extra users helped to improve understanding of how readers respond to different subscription offers and enabled improved selection of content , with the aim of converting occasional readers into full subscribers .
The Times and the Sunday Times hit 500,000 subscribers in 2012 , thanks in part to monitoring reader responses to various subscription offers . Over the past year , digital - only sign - ups entered print for the first time , rising 20 % to date . The Times also increased its registered - access user pool , where readers sign up to read two articles a week , to 3.75 million . The extra users helped to improve understanding of how readers respond to different subscription offers and enabled improved selection of content , with the aim of converting occasional readers into full subscribers .