Mobile devices and their surging popularity are driving big gains in online visits and total circulation of The Denver Post, according to newly released data.
From October to March, monthly page views at averaged more than 60 million, a 52 percent increase from the monthly average between April and September 2011, according to Omniture.
Mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and e-readers accounted for an average of 18.2 million page views a month from October to March, an increase of 143 percent from the previous six months.
The number of people using mobile devices each month to access rose 91 percent to an average of 471,000.
“Everything mobile is exploding,” said Bill Reynolds, the paper’s senior vice president of circulation.
Total circulation on Sundays increased 10.6 percent to 595,363 for the six months ended March 31, compared with the previous six months, according to a report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Daily circulation increased 13.6 percent to 401,120 during the same period, while Saturday circulation increased 10 percent to 428,570.
Since October 2010, official circulation counts include readers accessing digital versions of a newspaper, either as part of a subscription or via an application they have loaded onto a device.
Readers who don’t want a print edition every day are offered a “hybrid” subscription that includes a print edition on certain days and a digital replica on others.
About a quarter of subscribers are going with the hybrid plan, Reynolds said, adding that traditional print-only subscriptions are down.
“Non-replica” digital readers are also counted in circulation totals if they visit at least once during a month via an application they have downloaded. They represented nearly 99,000 of Sunday’s total circulation, Reynolds said.
Tablets, in particular, are catching on quickly, with one in five adults owning one, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. About 15 percent of consumers the CEA surveyed said they planned to purchase a tablet in the next six months.
Social-media users also are increasing.
The average monthly count of combined Denver Post Facebook fans rose 63 percent to 251,056, and combined Twitter followers increased 11 percent to 630,603 at the end of March.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or
