AOL | All Things Digital
Total revenue was flat over 2011, “representing AOL’s best year-over-year revenue performance in 7 years,” the company says in an earnings release. Advertising revenue was up at AOL during the third quarter of 2012, rising 7 percent from the same period in 2011 to $340 million.
Subscription revenue dropped 10 percent over 2011, “its lowest rate of decline in over 6 years,” the company says. The number of domestic subscribers dropped 16 percent, to 2,893,000.
Domestic display advertising was down 3 percent to $122.5 million but search and contextual advertising was up 8 percent, to $91.8 million.
The company says domestic display “declined due to a reduction in the sale of reserved inventory, but was partially offset by an increase in the number of impressions sold through Ad.com, growth in reserved pricing due to the increased sales of premium formats and video and strong revenue growth from Patch.”
In September, Patch’s traffic was up 19 percent over the year before, the statement says. Across all AOL-owned sites, including The Huffington Post, unique visitors were up 4 percent over the same period in 2011, to 111 million unique visitors.
Related: AOL reports Q1 earnings with progress for Patch as rumors swirl it’s selling tech sites | AOL says Patch continues to double its revenue from last year | AOL earnings reports tell history of Patch since 2009
