Posted on 05/08/2006 8:49:15 AM PDT by churchillbuff
The Audit Bureau of Circulations FAS-FAX report released Monday morning reveals that circulation sank again this spring, with circ at major metros declining dramatically. Gains were slight.
Since March 2005, circulation has been declining at a more rapid pace. This spring, the numbers were expected to be better because of easier comparisons. Yet for the six-month period ending March 2006 compared to the same period a year ago, circulation at newspapers in major cities across the country continued to drop. Most notable so far: the San Francisco Chronicle, which experienced a dramatic 15% decline in daily copies, to 398,246.
Daily circulation at the Los Angeles Times dropped about 5.4% to 851,832. Sunday proved better for the paper, down 1.8%. The San Jose Mercury News, which McClatchy intends to buy, also showed decreases in daily circ, down 7.6% to 242,865.
The Washington Post reported that daily circulation slipped 3.6% to 724,242.
On the national front, USA Today reported slight gains -- despite a price increase last fall -- up .09% to 2,272,815. Daily circulation at The New York Times was up 0.5% to 1,142,464. The Wall Street Journal was down 1% to 2,049,768 for Monday through Friday.
As expected, daily circulation at The Boston Globe dropped 8.5% to 397,288. The paper experienced declines after releasing subscriber information in February.
The Sun in Baltimore also saw a significant decline. Daily circ sank 9.3% to 236,317 copies, while Sunday decreased 6.6% to 401,918.
The Philadelphia papers, which McClatchy put on the block after buying Knight Ridder, also showed declines. The Daily News was down 9.3% to 116,590 daily copies. Circuation at the Philadelphia Inquirer fell about 5% to 350,457. Sunday showed the same declines, down 5% to 705,965.
The Detroit Free Press reported an increase of 0.4% to 345,861, while the daily circ at the Detroit News dropped 1.5% to 214,934. Sunday was down 1.3% to 669,315.
Daily circulation at the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News declined -- both were down around 4.5%. Sunday declined about 4.1% to 704,806 copies.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer dropped 9% to 131,769 daily copies while the Seattle Times declined 5.3% to 220,734 daily copies. Sunday dropped 4.6% to 435,581.
Daily circulation at the Kansas City Star fell 5% to 261,776, while Sunday dropped 4% to 367,712. The Indianapolis Star slipped a bit, with daily circ down1.3% to 255,277. Sunday decreased 2.8% to 347,217.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch was down 1.7% to 277,842 daily copies. Sunday dropped 5% to 423,291. The Plain Dealer in Cleveland declined slighly, down 1.5% to 343,163 daily copies. Sunday dropped 2.7% to 450,875.
The Star Ledger in Newark, N.J. was one of the few major dailies to show gains. Daily was up 0.9% to 398,329 and Sunday was up 1.4% to 599,628.
In Florida, the Orlando Sentinel also dropped 8.2% to 229,368 daily copies. The Miami Herald was down 5.8% to 294,172.
Daily circulation at the Atlanta Journal Constitution decreased 6.7% to 365,011 and Sunday circ fell about 8% to 561,405. The Star Tribune in Minneapolis dropped 2.8% to 362,964 daily copies while Sunday dropped quite more, down 7.4% to 606,698.
The Chicago Tribune reported gains in both daily and Sunday up 0.9% and 0.3% respectively.
The gap is narrowing between rivals the New York Post, which reported daily circulation down 0.7% to 673,379. At the New York Daily News, daily circ dropped 3.6% to 708,477 copies.
Newsday reported circ numbers on this FAS-FAX, a first since it was mired in circulation problems that started in the summer of 2004. Daily circ was down at paper, 2.7% to 427,771. Sunday dropped 3.4% to 488,825.
Both the Chicago Sun-Times and The Dallas Morning News are not included on this report. The circ numbers are withheld pending the completion of a madatory six-month audit.
The Times-Picayune in New Orleans voluntarily suspended its service. Other Louisiana papers affected by hurricanes --The Advocate in Baton Rouge, the Courier in Houma, and the American Press in Lake Charles -- did not file by press time.
Sheesh!! Their next step will be sending around questionnaires to make sure the non-subscribers are doing the required reading.
I would guess circulation is down because more and more people are discovering Charmin provides superior cleansing, is more puncture resistant and does not leave ink residue.
FWIW, the article lists the Miami Herald, which is published in both Spanish and English, among those papers suffering declines in circulation. But the Spanish language angle does make sense.
It may be increasing due to people not reading the paper. Have you read a "news" paper lately? The writing is terrible. Why read poorly-composed and poorly-edited articles slapped together under a short deadline when you can pick up a good book that was crafted by the author over a longer period?
I get a couple newspapers, the writing in the WSJ seems pretty good on the whole, though I think I'll look at this morning's copy with a more critical eye...OTOH, the Miami Herald can have some pretty sketchy writing. I suppose, that if literacy is decreasing, it only follows that the writing skills of newspaper journalists would lessen as well, in step with those of society in general. In any case, you are probably right, where the reading of newspapers once sharpened our literary skills, the opposite is now true.
They don't have to. The paperboys are also required to insert every freebie paper into bright green plastic wrappers before tossing them onto nonsubscribers' driveways. (The real newspaper never gets wrapped in anything except when there's a downpour, and then they only get plain clear wrappers.) Then about twelve hours later the circulation managers drive around their assigned neighborhoods and count the number of missing bright green wrappers.
Quite a system..
Yes, on second thought, I too am thinking that the decline would have to include the "immigrants," since our population is actually being grown by their presence, while newspaper readership simultaneously declines.
Miami's immigrant population, which is larger than the native population, has traditionally been Cuban, and quite well educated, I would say. OTOH, there are now folks here from all over the Caribbean, especially Jamaica and Haiti, Central and South America, and even Russia and Eastern Europe. But I think the ones who come here still tend to be the harder workers, and the ones with more education. The Mexicans are also hard workers, and they are here too, with probably a good bit less education than the others. In any case, the Spanish version of the Herald was originally aimed, I believe, at the Cuban population.
> The Washington Times celebrated its 23rd anniversary yesterday with cake and champagne served to its employees at a midafternoon assembly, as its executives announced a substantial gain in audited circulation in the face of a national trend of declining U.S. newspaper numbers.
For the six-month period ending March 31, the newspaper's daily circulation from Monday through Friday climbed to 103,017 -- an increase of nearly 3 percent over the similar period last year, according to Fas-Fax, the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) report of publishers' estimates. <
That's from last year's report. Wonder how they did this year.
My copy of the first moon landing newspaper (getting a bit yellow brown and brittle these days) is always interesting to see since below the fold is the first report of the incident with Ted and Mary Jo.
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