Posted on 02/28/2008 3:28:28 PM PST by abb
The Philadelphia Inquirer had its Sunday circulation knocked down by 17,209 copies and its average daily circulation by 211 copies according to an Audit Bureau of Circulations publisher's statement.
These are adjustments in the circulation numbers the paper reported on the ABC FAS-FAX report in September 2007.
For the six months ending September 2007, the paper revised its Sunday circulation from 662,304 to 645,095 -- a decline of 2.6%. Its daily (Monday-Friday) circulation went from 338,260 to 338,049, a nominal difference.
Both the FAS-FAX and the publisher's statements come out twice a year and mirror the same six-month period. The FAS-FAX is round-up of top line data from all the publisher's statements.
In theory, circulation data on the FAS-FAX should closely, if not exactly, match the numbers filed on the publisher's statement. There are deviations but generally they are small, even a handful of copies.
For a paper to be off by several thousand copies is unusual.
This is not the first time the Inquirer revised its circulation. On its audit report, which covered the 53 weeks ending April 2007, ABC noted a difference among the numbers filed on the publisher's statements and the audit report. For that period, ABC cut 15,718 copies from the Inquirer's Sunday circulation and by 392 copies from its average daily circulation (Monday-Friday).
Jay Devine, a spokesman for the Inquirer, said the audit adjustment was due to circulation that fell under the other-paid category. "ABC was not able to verify certain subscribers that were part of a third-party circulation program," he said.
That same third-party program spilled into the September 2007 publisher statement period, explained Devine, which accounted for a chunk of the 17,209 copies, or almost 12,000 copies. The other adjustments come out of the discounted circulation and the more -than-50% paid category.
Publishers do not have to get prior approval from ABC to run third-party sponsorships. However, ABC does require that papers give auditors notice at least 14 days in advance of new programs.
ABC said it does not comment on the specifics of audit findings.
While the Inquirer made the revision to the audit report and publisher's statement it did so within the acceptable range of variance.
Newspapers with discrepancies of 3% or more when comparing the audit report to the publisher's statements are listed on an ABC variation report. (ABC recently bumped up that threshold from 2%). A difference of 5% or more triggers the board to look into the possibility of censure or other measures.
The adjustments hardly affect the Inquirer's daily circulation or its claim that now "pigs fly." Even with the new numbers daily grew 2.3%. On Sunday circulation fell 5.4% opposed to the originally reported decline of 2.9%.
ping
The Philadelphia Inquirer is delivered to stores near me, but I would never buy it.
I’ve seen them trying to get people to take it for free at train stations on the main line.
Standby emergency personnel, man the crash trucks, the Inquirer flying pig is coming in for an emergency landing...
Indeed, my good Doctor. A surfeit of good news today!
Fresh bacon and sausage for breakfast in the morning. And a nice smoked ham for Sunday dinner, doncha think?
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving fishwrapper.
Who is still buying these papers? I wonder what the demographics are. My aunt gets the Bee but we would never subscribe. I suppose we might buy an individual copy if there was a really good reason (i.e., grandpa turned 100). My kids don’t get papers, and never have. Probably never will.
“Who is still buying these papers?”
Don’t know but there’s a good poster here that used to work for both the Bulletin and Inquirer as a reporter.
The Inquirer was so bad in the ‘70s I had to leave college in Philly and buy my paper in the ‘burbs. The local edition in the city didn’t have any advertisements or coupons, only reason I really bought these fishwrappers.
pigs-really-can’t- fly-after-all ping
I cancelled a couple of months ago (after stupidly accepting a trial subscription for next to nothing) and now they won’t stop calling me. Their sales tactic is to tell you that each subscription results in a donation to the Childrens Hospital. I actuall y had one woman say to me, “But don’t you want to do it for the children?” For real, no joke.
Another time a young man called and I told him I wanted no part of the Inquirer because it’s too liberal. He told me that the paper had a new format where if you are liberal you just read the pages on the left side and if you are conservative, read only the pages on the right. Again, no joke.
I’m all over the Philly area every day and the only paper I buy is the NY Post which I pick up at whatever WaWa I get my lunch from. Lately though, I’ve been finding the Bulletin dropped at the top of my driveway. Believe it or not, it’s conservative. I hope it takes off.
“whatever WaWa I get my lunch from.”
We’ve got WaWa down here in MD too, but there were so many markets in Philly where you could grab a good hoagie at a reasonable cost. Or a cheesesteak.
The WaWa I used to frequent in the Great Valley business center had a staff of 5-6 slicing meat and making lunch. They really cranked out the food, and the checkout lines were always long but fast moving.
ping
Thanks for the ping.
Rte 29 exit of 202! I was there last week (I live in upstate New York).
They hang up pretty quick when you blast 'em for their liberal bias and crappity reporting.
Liberals, as long as it's your money they don't care.
Honesty is not part of the corporate culture of left wing Dinosaur fishwraps.
They lie about subscriptions and pass their anti America lies and bias off as news.
The Dinosaur Fishwraps have been Enronning their stockholders, advertisers, subscribers and the rest of America for decades.
These shortfalls are FRAUD.
“In theory, circulation data on the FAS-FAX should closely, if not exactly, match the numbers filed on the publisher’s statement. There are deviations but generally they are small, even a handful of copies.
For a paper to be off by several thousand copies is unusual.
This is not the first time the Inquirer revised its circulation. On its audit report, which covered the 53 weeks ending April 2007, ABC noted a difference among the numbers filed on the publisher’s statements and the audit report. For that period, ABC cut 15,718 copies from the Inquirer’s Sunday circulation and by 392 copies from its average daily circulation (Monday-Friday). “
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