L.A. Times print and online see circulation/readership growth

Colleagues:

Our advertising partners rely on The Times as the primary source for reaching an engaged and influential Southern California audience and require circulation and digital readership data to make crucial buying decisions. One of the most traditional analytics utilized is the biannual Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) Snapshot report, previously known as the Audit Bureau of Circulation’s (ABC) FAS-FAX.

The September 2013 report was released today and is the sixth consecutive Snapshot / FAS-FAX in which we have shown gains in total circulation year-over-year. During the six months ending September 2013, The Times’ average circulation was as follows:

· Monday-through-Friday total circulation, including digital usage as measured by AAM, averaged 671,797 copies. This total is up 30,429 or 4.7% compared to last year.

·Sunday total circulation averaged 963,751 copies, also including AAM’s digital measurement, showing an increase of 1,559 or 0.2% compared to last year.

The above gains reflect readers increasingly accessing latimes.com via mobile and tablet devices, as well as growing readership of our e-Newspaper, which is available only to our members. For this reporting period, e-Newspaper usage contributed more than 13,000 copies to our total circulation average and, according to Google Analytics, our members accessing the product via mobile and tablet were highly engaged, spending an average of 37 minutes per visit.

In addition, as measured by comScore, mobile traffic to latimes.com grew 15% in the past six months. This was driven in large part by the introduction last fall of our responsively-designed mobile site. Also significant, overall traffic* has held steady, averaging 22 million UVs and 130 million PVs monthly during this time period in which we shifted the site meter to 10 articles per month from the previous 15-story threshold.

Our continued strategy of delivering compelling, relevant, and reliable news and information across print and digital platforms has well positioned us well for growth. These results and our trends are a direct result of your dedication to excellence. Working together we can look forward to more innovation and success in 2014.

Bill Nagel
*comScore