This year, The Rockport Times had 774 subscribers. That is 70% fewer than they had last year, before the paper was bought out. How many subscribers did the paper have last year?

I am not strong at percent equations, could someone please give me a deep explanation?

100% is the whole thing

70% fewer means 30% of the whole thing

if S is the number of subscribers (last year)
... then 774 is 30% of S

.30 S = 774