LRB circulation up 2.5% 'thanks to paid subscribers'

Circulation at the London Review of Books (LRB) has gone up by 2.5% in the past year thanks to an increase in paid subscribers, the magazine says.

Figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations showed its average circulation in 2018 was 75,725.

ABC figures for July to December 2018 showed its closest competitor, the Times Literary Supplement, had an average circulation of 46,145.

The LRB said the increase was in line with consistent growth that has seen circulation soar by 57% in the past decade.

During the course of 2018, it increased its profile further with major essays by Amia Srinivasan on “incels”, Andrew O’Hagan on the Grenfell Tower fire and John Lanchester on the 10th anniversary of the financial crisis.

Statistics for the last six months of 2018 showed 94% of the print circulation came from paid subscribers. Its full-rate subscriptions were also up 4.3% on the same period the previous year.

Reneé Doegar, head of marketing for the London Review of Books, said: “Something that we’re very mindful of at the LRB is that not all growth is the same. Yes, it’s possible to buy inexpensive print circulation with high churn, but fast growth isn’t always good growth – or good business.

“A consistent annual increase in revenue-generating subscriptions is what we aim for, and we’re pleased to see our strategy that carefully monitors subscriptions by using lifetime value modelling continues to pay off with another year of increase, driven by a combination of long-standing subscribers and new readers.”