Rafat Ali
paidContent.org
Thursday, August 7, 2008 12:07 AM

Yes, believe it or not, some things are doing well at the embattled LA Times, and as expected, it is the online side. Some traffic numbers, from the company itself, in the form of a memo from interactive exec ed Meredith ( NYSE: MDP) Artley on its clunkily-named Reader's Representative Journal blog. Of course these are from the company itself, so take it for what it's worth...and that traffic growth does not mean revenue growth, necessarily. Still, it can do with all the hope it can muster.

"Latimes.com set an all-time record of 127 million page views for July, cruising past the previous record of 120 million set in May. That's 66% growth from this time last year. More than 19 million unique users visited in July, another all-timer...We were on track to break that May record by a few million page views, and then the earthquake happened, pushing us even further ahead." Translation: Quakes rock.

Then, some other traffic-friendly launches: last month it launched "Hero Complex", a new sci-fi and beyond blog, about, well, all things geek entertainment. While an odd fit, very page view friendly. Case in point: " Schwarzenegger underwhelmed by early 'Terminator Salvation' footage". Then this new database of "Popular Dog names and breeds in Los Angeles County", where I learned something very revealing: The most common dogs in LA are Chihuahua, and there are exactly 1,262 registered Chihuahuas named Princess. Now you know?