El Diario La Prensa achieves highest circulation & readership growth rate among NYC newspapers.

El Diario La Prensa announced that its circulation increased 5.8% daily and 8.4% on Sunday, as reported by the Fas-Fax Sept. 2006 statement. Additionally, El Diario’s daily readership experienced an extraordinary year over year growth rate of 25%, based on Scarborough Research 2006 R1. This gives El Diario La Prensa the highest circulation and readership growth rate of any major New York newspaper.

As of September 2006, El Diario La Prensa has paid circulation of 53,090 copies daily, up from 50,151 in September 2005, and 36,712 copies on Sunday, up from 33,859. The paper has over 266,000 daily readers, according to Scarborough.

“While the newspaper industry in general is experiencing slow or even negative growth, and some general market papers have plunged, our daily and Sunday circulation increases are a testament to our 93-year tradition of journalistic excellence,” said Rossana Rosado, Publisher and CEO of El Diario La Prensa. “It’s also a function of our deep knowledge of the needs and desires of the expanding Latino community, our prize-winning journalism and our strong focus on product innovation.”

In the First National Ethnic Media Awards held this month, articles from El Diario La Prensa won first prize for best investigative/in-depth reporting (in a language other than English); second prize for arts, entertainment and sports reporting; and honorable mention for reporting on international affairs. In 2006, El Diario La Prensa was the co-winner of the Jose Marti Prize as best Spanish language daily newspaper in the U.S.

“In addition to our investigative reporting, this year we also had the most comprehensive coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in the New York area and the most dynamic coverage of the Latin Grammy’s for the Hispanic print audience,” said Rosado.

“In time for the Latin Grammy’s we launched La Vibra, a special weekly section dedicated to entertainment. La Vibra is the go-to place for entertainment and nightlife for young readers. Published every Thursday, it is an essential resource for them to plan their weekend activities.”

El Diario La Prensa is currently running a special multi-part series on the fascinating history of Salsa music, also in the Thursday edition.

“These numbers indicate how vibrant our media vehicle is for both local and national advertisers,” said Jorge Ayala, El Diario La Prensa’s General Sales Director. “In the current media environment, reporting jumps in circulation above 5% and 8% and readership growth above 25% is an amazing indication of the vitality of our publication and our market.”