West Australian Newspapers today told investors that it expected to deliver a third straight quarter of increased circulation for the period ending in December, The Brisbane Times today reported. CEO Chris Wharton said the media group's growth of the last two periods was not due to discount sales and, thus, continuing price restoration would not hamper ongoing revenue generation.

The news of increased readership followed the media group's recent posting of a 22.9 percent loss in profit as compared to the same quarter last year, according to The Australian Business. The loss in profit prompted a 21 cent - or 3 percent - spike in stock shares because it reflected an 18.6 percent improvement on the average $19.3 million net gain recorded in the previous two quarters, The Australasian Investment Review observed.

"We are seeing positive trends and, almost without exception, we have seen week-on- week growth since August," Wharton told the Australian Stock Exchange in a statement last week.