The company says it has reached 146,608 subscriptions in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, of which 85,551 were in Estonia – a rise of 14 percent in this country alone, over the past year.

Ekspress Grupp's digital subscriptions comprise news portal Delfi, daily Eesti Päevaleht (EPL), investigative weekly Eesti Ekspress, agricultural publication Maaleht, also a weekly, and Delfi Meedia, which publishes several magazines.

The rise between the third and fourth quarter of 2022, in Estonia alone, stood at 10 percent, the company adds.

Additionally, Ekspress Grupp also owns a 50 percent stake in evening paper Õhtuleht, whose digital subscriptions rose by 7 percent on year to the end of 2022, though the figure fell by 4 percent between the third and fourth quarters, to 22,530 subs.

The same group also owns Geenius Meedia, which publishes a portal covering consumer rights, tech, motoring and lifestyle topics.

Geenius Meedia saw the largest rise of all, by 37 percent on year, to 5,616 subscriptions.

While Ekspress Grupp is one of two major private media firms in Estonia, the other, Postimees Grupp, declines to make public its subscription figures in a comparable way.

What is known is that Postimees stated its total subscribers, paper and digital combined, came to 118,000 at year-end 2022, while digital subscriptions alone stood at 7,000, the company says.

In January 2021, the total figure for Postimees had stood at 113,000 subscribers, ERR reports.

AS Ekspress Grupp is a Baltic media group whose activities include online media content production and publishing of newspapers, magazines and books. The group also manages an electronic ticket sales platform and ticket sales points in Estonia and Latvia. Ekspress Grupp, which started its operations in 1989, employs more than 1,400 people, and its majority owner is Hans H. Luik.

Postimees Grupp is owned by businessman Margus Linnamäe, whose other business concerns include pharma wholesalers MM Grupp, and entertainment group Apollo.

A rise in digital subscriptions has accompanied a fall in those for print media, a phenomenon which has prompted EPL, Õhtuleht and Postimees to all cease publishing on Mondays, or, in the case of business daily Äripäev (owned by Swedish group Bonnier) to discontinue the print newspaper altogether.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!