With everything that’s happened in our industry, this is always welcome news…

From Staff Reports

The Pasadena Star-News continues to post increases in daily and Sunday circulation, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ six-month Fas-Fax report released Tuesday.

For the period ending March 31, the Star-News’ daily circulation rose to 25,530 daily, up 121 from the comparable period a year earlier. Sunday circulation climbed to 27,988, up 557 from a year earlier.

The Star-News’ sister papers — the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and the Whittier Daily News — also grew circulation. The Tribune grew by 121 daily, to 36,163, and 59 Sunday, to 38,963. The Daily News grew by 682 daily, to 14,811, and 646 Sunday, to 15,360.

By contrast, the Los Angeles Times reported a 2 percent drop in daily circulation, while growing Sunday circulation by 0.74 percent.

Factoring in new Audit Bureau rules that take into account readers of so-called branded editions of a newspaper — the Highlander weeklies, for instance — Star-News Sunday circulation rose to 38,969.

Under these rules, Tribune daily circulation stood at 56,512 while Sunday averaged 80,215. And Daily News Sunday circulation climbed to 19,635.

In addition, latest numbers show continued web traffic growth at pasadenastarnews.com, sgvtribune.com and whittierdailynews.com — to an average 1.4 million monthly unique visitors and 5.3 million monthly page views. The newspapers also have nearly 25,000 subscribers to online e-editions.

“No matter how you look at it, our readership is on the rise,” said Steve Lambert, editor and publisher of the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group. “We’re proud of the gains we’ve made on the newspaper side of the business, and see tremendous opportunity in the years ahead in the multimedia arena.”