Digital Edition Count Jumps 28% Among BPA Members

The number of BPA Worldwide member publications reporting digital edition circulation increased to 286 in this year's first half, a nearly 28% increase over second-half 2008’s 224, the audit bureau recently reported.

On average across all publications reporting digital, these editions represented 13% of total circulation during the first half.

Some of the increased digital activity may have resulted from a rules change effective in the first half, according to the audit bureau. BPA previously required that each individual publication preparing to begin reporting digital edition circulation pass a pre-audit. Under the amended rules, once one publication within a given publishing company has passed a pre-audit, other titles within the same company need not go through pre-audits, as long as they are using the same digital vendor as the pre-audited title and no changes have been made in the system software.

The top-20 ranking of member publications by number of digital subscriptions reported during the first half is below. Computer Weekly, Computing, Electronics Weekly and Renewable Energy Focus are based outside of the U.S.

Oracle has led these rankings since launching its digital edition in January 2007. The other titles occupying the top slots have also by and large remained the same for the past several periods, although shifts in their specific rankings have occurred.

Top 20 BPA Titles By Digital Circulation, First Half 2008

	Title	Total Qualified Circ	Total Digital Only Subs	Digital Only As % Of TQ
1	Oracle	504,364	146,545	29.1%
2	Eweek	400,100	65,000	16.2%
3	Computer Weekly	133,629	61,522	46.0%
4	NASA Tech Briefs	190,678	52,321	27.4%
5	Redmond	120,154	39,954	33.3%
6	Dr. Dobb's Journal	120,000	33,065	27.6%
7	Eschool News	80,831	32,846	40.6%
8	Computing	99,870	29,521	29.6%
9	Design News	170,089	22,167	13.0%
10	Laser Focus World	71,000	21,432	30.2%
11	Electronics Weekly	40,778	20,029	49.1%
12	EDN	125,015	19,728	15.8%
13	SD Times	60,448	19,176	31.7%
14	Laboratory Equipment	80,546	17,446	21.7%
15	Cadalyst	62,019	17,266	27.8%
16	Renewable Energy Focus	27,000	17,000	63.0%
17	ECN	122,050	16,279	13.3%
18	Foreign Policy	103,388	15,964	15.4%
19	Industry Week	126,576	15,946	12.6%
20	Research & Development	72,549	15,635	21.6%

Source: BPA Worldwide publishers' statements. Note: A subscriber opting to receive both print and digital editions of a title is reported and counted only once within total circulation.