BOSTON— Harvard Business Review posted an overall paid circulation gain of 6.3% in the past year, according to a recently released report from the Alliance for Audited Media. (As filed with AAM. Subject to audit.) In total, HBR is now reaching 339,919 subscribers and newsstand buyers, up from 319,631 in the prior year.
HBR’s gains have been driven by subscriptions, which increased 8.4% from June 2018 to June 2019. Overall, HBR’s paid circulation has grown 29.5% in the last five years.
“There’s been incredible growth in new paying subscribers and renewals, which is a testament to both our editorial excellence and sharp focus on subscriber engagement,” said HBR Group Publisher and Senior Vice President Sarah McConville. “At the same time, we’ve been increasing brand visibility with new audiences through podcasts, social media, and other platforms.”
In 2019, HBR introduced HBR Presents, a network of business podcasts curated by HBR editors that builds on HBR’s highly successful original podcasts – HBR IdeaCast, Dear HBR:, and Women at Work. The brand also launched on Snapchat Discover and grew its Instagram audience by 800% in the past year. Other new efforts include live case study events and editor-led conference calls for subscribers.
“We’ve been more ambitious than ever about expanding our reach and impact across platforms, and delivering big ideas that resonate with readers,” said HBR Editor in Chief Adi Ignatius. “This year we published important thinking on innovation, on health care, on hiring, and on many other topics.”
Along with its 340,000 paid circulation, HBR receives an average of 7 million unique visitors each month to HBR.org and has more than 18 million social media followers and 4 million monthly podcast downloads.
In June, HBR completed the roll-out of a new tiered subscription model. For the first time HBR is offering a Digital subscription, which includes unlimited online access to all HBR articles and the magazine archive, HBR’s visual library, editor-curated reading lists, the weekly Insider newsletter, and the HBR mobile app. The Digital + Print package includes everything in the Digital subscription plus the print edition of the magazine delivered six times per year. The Premium option adds case study collections and select e-books.
