Newspaper & Mailroom
The Press-Enterprise Only Top 5 Newspaper in the LA DMA to Post a Gain in Readership
Thursday 08. May 2008 - The latest Scarborough research report released April 2008, which measures newspaper readership between the 12-month period ending January 2007 and the 12-month period ending January 2008, reports The Press-Enterprise now has a total weekly print audience of 825,596 -- a 5.5% increase in the Los Angeles DMA.
This gain outpaces other newspapers in the market during a challenging economic climate, and is even more notable given that the remaining Top 5 newspapers in the LA DMA — The Los Angeles Times, The Orange County Register, The Ventura County Star and The Los Angeles Daily News — all have posted declines.
The Los Angeles Daily News saw a 7% drop, The Orange County Register was down 4.3%, The Los Angeles Times 4.1% and The Ventura County Star 0.3%.
Among Inland Southern California newspapers, the total weekly print audience at The Sun (San Bernardino) was down 4.1%. The Sun is part of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, which was down 6.9% among its Inland Empire newspapers. LANG’s entire Southern California group, which includes The Los Angeles Daily News, was down 4.8%.
Moreover, The Press-Enterprise’s weekly print audience in San Bernardino County jumped 10.4% and was up 5.8% in Riverside County.
Concurrently, The Press-Enterprise’s online audience also has grown. According to Omniture SiteCatalyst, PE.com had 616,943 unique visitors in January 2008, a 37% increase over a year ago.
Ron Redfern, publisher and chief executive officer of The Press-Enterprise, attributed readership gains in part to improved customer service.
“The Press-Enterprise invested in getting our paper to readers earlier in response to the demand of an early commuter market,” says Redfern. “We now have the earliest delivery in the market, by 5 a.m. on weekdays and 6:30 a.m. on weekends and holidays. And we’re investing in programs aimed at retaining our valuable existing subscribers.”
While circulation has trended down in recent years, The Press-Enterprise cites reasons not necessarily related to a lack of interest on the part of readers. The newspaper has been reorganizing its distribution footprint to focus on areas most relevant to readers and advertisers. As a result, The Press-Enterprise has eliminated distribution outside of its core market in distant Blythe, Calif., and in the San Bernardino mountains.
The newspaper also has elected to slow third-party sales and eliminate bonus days because, although counted as paid circulation, they were not driving readership.
This strategy is producing a highly engaged readership base, as recognized by the results from the Scarborough study. This translates into an improved return on investment for The Press-Enterprise’s advertisers.