LOS ANGELES, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- For the six months ended Sept. 30, 2005, the Los Angeles Times reported a six-day Monday-Saturday average circulation of 869,819, a decline of 3.6 percent from the prior year, and Sunday circulation of 1,247,569, a decline of 3.5 percent from the prior year, according to figures filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). "Our September Publisher's Statement shows significant improvement compared with the March 2005 statement with average daily declines slowing, now trending about half the amount reported in March 2005," said Jeffrey M. Johnson, Los Angeles Times publisher. "Further evidence of our progress is demonstrated by our third-quarter circulation, which was up 0.5 percent Monday-Saturday and down 2.6 percent on Sunday. "During the past six months we have renewed our focus on building individually paid copies that our advertisers have told us they value the most," said Johnson. "In addition, we have focused our acquisition efforts on building copies and readership toward the latter part of the week to mirror our readers' lifestyles and our advertisers' objectives. Friday circulation at 990,000 and Saturday circulation averaging more than 1 million, are more than 100,000 higher than the six-day average, and underscore our ability to deliver high-quality circulation on days of the week of highest value to our advertisers. "We remain committed to growing a responsive and engaged audience base. To do so, we will continue to put more resources and efforts toward growing individually paid copies while reducing our reliance on other paid circulation. We will also continue to invest in making our editorial compelling in both content and design to the people of Southern California." The Los Angeles Times continues to deliver the largest audience in Southern California with an average daily readership of almost 2.3 million weekdays and nearly 3.4 million on Sunday. The Times, a Tribune Publishing company, is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country and the winner of 37 Pulitzer Prizes, including two this year. The Times publishes five daily regional editions, for the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Orange County, Ventura County, the San Fernando Valley, and the Inland Empire of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as well as a National edition. The Times' website, http://www.latimes.com/, features 50,000 content pages, and is updated continuously with more than 3,000 stories posted daily. Latimes.com's award-winning arts and entertainment section, calendarlive.com, offers an extensive range of entertainment news reviews and Southern California's most comprehensive event listing. The Times also produces The Envelope, http://www.theenvelope.com/, the entertainment industry's most comprehensive, year-round awards show website. Additional information about The Times is available at http://www.latimes.com/mediacenter. DATASOURCE: Los Angeles Times CONTACT: Martha Goldstein of Los Angeles Times, +1-213-237-3727, Web site: http://calendarlive.com/ Web site: http://www.theenvelope.com/ Web site: http://www.latimes.com/mediacenter Web site: http://www.latimes.com/

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