“Dots”
https://www.poynter.org/2015/r-i-p-six-month-newspaper-circulation-reports-are-gone-for-good/340931/
In recent years, comparability got muddled with varying strategies on paywalls, new categories like replica editions (a digital file of the print paper), and the decision of some papers, especially in the Advance chain, not to publish or home-deliver print papers on certain days.
Then, as now, the main point of the reports and regular audits was to give media buyers reliable information as they chose where to place ads. The six-month releases served to raise the profile of AAM, known previously as the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
The good old days were not without controversy. In 2004, four large papers — Newsday, the Chicago Sun Times, the Dallas Morning News and El Hoy — were caught padding their totals by tens of thousands. They were forced to give refunds or free placements to advertisers who had bought at rates based on the inflated numbers.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2004/08/ghost_readers.html
Ghost Readers
Is everybody in the newspaper business inflating circulation?
They don’t get read because what they print isn’t worth reading . The younger generation just looks at Facebook and a lot people that agree are to lazy to read .
I really hate to even link to most newspapers , don’t want to give them the hits .