Times Orange County Edition Gains Readership : Circulation: Weekday total grows 4.5% to 193,923. Sunday figure is up 5.5% to 291,467. Orange County Register daily, Sunday figures dip.

The Orange County Edition of the Los Angeles Times continued to gain readers despite the newspaper reporting a slight decrease in overall daily and Sunday circulation, according to a report released Monday.

The edition’s weekday circulation grew 4.5%, or 8,451, to 193,923 from September to September. Its Sunday circulation grew 5.5%, or 15,189, to 291,467.

At the same time, the Orange County Register said its circulation in the county declined by 4.4% for its daily edition and 2.8% on Sunday.

The latest numbers, released by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, showed that the Register’s average Orange County circulation fell 14,190 on weekdays to 304,755 in the six months ended Sept. 30, when compared with average circulation for the period ended Sept. 30, 1991. Its Sunday circulation fell 10,351 to 358,403, the bureau said, during the same six-month period.

“This marks the fourth year in a row that we are up--and up significantly,” said Lawrence M. Higby, president of the Times’ Orange County edition. “I think the people in Orange County are realizing that we not only have the region’s best national, international and state coverage, but we have a superior package of local and county news.”

Register executives could not be reached for comment on the figures.

Overall, including copies that the Register sells outside Orange County, its daily circulation fell 3.8%, to 345,436, while Sunday circulation fell 1.3%, to 394,986.

The Los Angeles Times’ overall circulation dropped 2.6% weekdays and 0.9% Sunday in the period ended Sept. 30. The Times reported a weekday circulation of 1,146,631, which is down 30,622 compared with the period ended Sept. 30 last year. On Sunday, The Times said its average circulation is 1,515,220, down 14,389.

However, the paper has regained the top spot as the largest circulation metropolitan daily in the country on weekdays, a distinction held by the New York Times for the previous six-month period.

The New York Times reported daily circulation of 1,145,890 for the six months ending in September; its Sunday circulation was 1,741,989. In the six months ended March 31, the New York Times had daily circulation of 1,201,970, which placed it 3.2% ahead of the Los Angeles Times, with 1,164,388 daily circulation. The Los Angeles Times first became the nation’s largest metro daily on weekdays in the reporting period ended March 31, 1990.

David Laventhol, Times publisher and chief executive officer, blamed the overall circulation decline on cutbacks the newspaper has made outside its main circulation area. For example, The Times has stopped shipping papers to Phoenix and Salt Lake City.

The Times’ circulation increased for its San Fernando Valley and Ventura County editions, which are reported together. Daily, circulation was up by 3,827 to 232,996, according to the newspaper’s records, while Sunday circulation was up by 10,718 to 329,254 for the six months ended Sept. 30, compared with the corresponding six-month period last year.