FT’s paid-for circulation measure makes its debut

Development of the metric was announced in May following the FT’s decision to withdraw its web traffic data from the public release of ABCe-audited data, saying “volume traffic measures have become less relevant to our advertisers and agencies”.

The FT also recently developed a measure of its average daily global audience (ADGA), which uses a combination of sources including syndicated national and regional readership surveys, unique user and browser data, the FT’s own reader research and ABC circulation figures, with duplicated consumption removed.

ADGA data is reported every six months, but the FT plans to release the combined paid-for circulation data every quarter in addition to ABC print circulation data.

The first set of results for the period 31 May to 4 July 2010, show that at the start of July 2010 an average of 563,026 people around the world paid for FT content every day. This number is made up of average daily newspaper sales as well as active FT.com digital and eReader subscriptions.

Tim Irwin, managing director of media buying agency Maxus, hailed the FT’s new measure as providing “a clear[er] and more transparent measure of the relationship between the FT and its customers”.