Digital sales of The Economist are up 43% YoY according to its latest Consolidated Media Report, with 11% of Economist readers worldwide now paying for digital content

NEW YORK, Sept. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Economist today released its latest Consolidated Media Report (CMR), confirming a shift in worldwide audience behaviour and a growing focus on digital consumption. Three highlights that point in that direction include:

• Digital edition sales now account for 11% of total Economist circulation.
• Over 50,000 more digital edition copies were purchased compared to a year ago.
• Worldwide digital sales grew 43%, with double-digit growth in every global region.

The increase in digital sales coincides with The Economist's audience increasingly consuming content across multiple platforms. A total of 167,254 digital editions were purchased between January and June 2014, a leap of 27.8% from the previous six months, securing an additional 36,338 copy sales. The increased sales of digital editions enabled our circulation to remain flat versus the previous CMR.

The Economist CMR report details 1.55 million audited print and digital editions worldwide. It provides a unique view of combined print and digital across six regions, compiled by Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) in America with support from ABC U.K. As readers increasingly move between print, apps and online, media buyers around the world are provided with reliable print circulation and metrics from multiple digital channels.

In addition to worldwide data, each regional edition is featured in a separate section in the report. AAM provided data for the North America and Latin America editions, while ABC U.K.'s audits spanned editions from the U.K., Continental Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. The CMR report combines this data, revealing YoY digital growth:

• North American digital edition sales grew 23.5%
• Latin American digital edition sales grew 12.9%
• UK digital edition sales grew 147%
• Europe digital edition sales grew 58.8%
• MEA digital edition sales grew 11.9%
• Asia digital edition sales grew 92.6%

Michael Brunt, MD of global circulation for The Economist recently commented: "Our audience is increasingly consuming The Economist across platforms, and we are incredibly proud that we can present our quality content in the different formats that our audience wants. We always expected that more of our readers would want to read us in a digital format, and we have set up our operations to support that migration and to bring us into the future of digital consumption."

Additional digital metrics are available in the full report CMR report here: http://www.auditedmedia.com/

About The Economist (www.economist.com)
With a growing global circulation (now more than 1.55 million including both print* and digital) and a reputation for insightful analysis and perspective on every aspect of world events, The Economist is one of the most widely recognised and well-read current affairs publications. The paper covers politics, business, science and technology, and books and arts, concluding each week with the obituary. In addition to the web-only content such as blogs, debates and audio/video programmes available on the website, The Economist is now available to download for reading on Android, Blackberry PlayBook, iPhone or iPad devices.

*Alliance for Audited Media, Jan-Jun 2014

Contact:
Michelle Hayden
Communications Manager, The Economist
[email protected]
212-641-9827

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SOURCE The Economist