Over 4 million digital issues were sold in the second half of last year.

Readly is a digital magazine newsstand, now boasting an 84% year on year growth for the second half of 2016.

Readly UK’s managing director, Ranj Begley, said: “Our figures are being driven up by two factors.  Firstly, we have been investing in consumer promotions to push up our subscriber numbers.  Secondly, we have been stimulating our existing subscribers to read more.  The net effect is this big jump in the total number of digital issues which we are delivering for publishers.”

According to Readly figures, 40% of subscribers use the app daily, while the average time spent on the app is 22 minutes per session.

Begley went on to say: “We are trying to make reading a magazine more like using a social media platform.  That means that we have to satisfy the longer, more traditional magazine reading occasion, when consumers want to settle down, block out the world and spend time with their favourite magazine brands.  Yet we also prompting subscribers to snack in short bursts, to try to make magazine reading a daily habit, more like social media usage.  It is this second aspect where we have made real gains over the last year.  It is here where the real battle for magazines to hold on to their readers is taking place; and the Readly app is allowing this to happen.”