Regional publisher Newsquest has announced it has reached the milestone of 100,000 paying digital subscribers, four years after launching soft paywalls on some of its websites.

The publisher recorded 101,109 digital subscribers last week, with its websites also achieving record audience figures with 187m page views in August.

Newsquest launched soft paywalls on some of its larger local news sites such as heraldscotland.com in 202, with online visitors typically able to read up to 30 stories a month before paying.

Digital subscriptions, typically priced at £4.99 per month, include access to all content in an ad light environment as well as an e-edition of the print paper and in some cases subscriber-only newsletters.

The company says its revenue from digital subscribers now stands at more than £500,000 a month.

Newsquest chief executive Henry Faure Walker, pictured, said: “The demand for digital subscriptions, which has now surpassed 100,000 and continues to grow at a pace, has exceeded our expectations.

“At the same time, we’re also continuing to grow our overall digital audience, with 57.5 million visitors to the Newsquest sites in August reading a record number of articles.

“The data further underlines the phenomenal demand for trusted local news and the power of our local platforms which now typically reach more than 75% of local people each month.”