Tribune Figures For LA Times Circulation Drop Contradict Earlier Announcement

LA Times Watch ^

[prfix]

Today's Tribune announcement of a 5.5% circulation drop at the LA Times appears to contradict numbers reportedly posted at the LA Times website:

[prfix]

Today's Tribune announcement of a 5.5% circulation drop at the LA Times appears to contradict numbers reportedly posted at the LA Times website:

On October 28, 2004, Tribune announced a "circulation decline" (note they did not admit to "inflated circulation") at the LA Times to a daily circulation of 902,164.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000693105

Today they again announce a 5.5% decline yet the circulation figure posted at the LA Times' website is 983,727 according to this BizJournals article posted here earlier.

http://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/stories/2005/04/11/daily60.html

Can anyone explain this?

[speedy]

Let's just go with the lower figure and be happy.

[prfix]

you're probably right but inquiring minds want to know.

[Republic Rocker]

I'm doing a dance tonite.............i am part of the DECLINE!!!!!

[speedy]

Good for you!! I got to be part of the decline of the late 90s when I lived in LA. Then I moved to New York and became part of the decline of the NY Times. And now I'm in Boston contributing to the decline of the Boston Globe -- I won't even pick up the office copy. I move around the country just to watch newspaper circulations collapse!! It's fun -- the whole family can play.

[Domangart]

Free papers to entice new customers that really go to the gate guard.

[randog]

...i am part of the DECLINE!!!!!

Good on ya'. We'll take the MSM down one newspaper, one channel click at a time.

[Cousin Eddie]

I can't explain this specific case, but there are all sorts of numbers that are looked at in terms of newspaper circulation.

Examples:
1. Daily vs. Sunday (usually a big difference).
2. Subscriber vs. Total (which includes sales from newsstands and machines).

[Just A Nobody]

5.5% decline...surely that can be improved on.

[gogipper]

Milwaukee Urinal Sentinal earnings are down 16%

[goldstategop]

Like Col. John "Hannibal" Smith always to used to say on The A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together." I love it when the Lefty Los Angeles Times keeps hemorrhaging readers. Every day, they find a new way to keep turning off people. Michael Kinsley, John Carroll and Company on Spring Street must be doing something right. Congratulations!

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[pepsionice]

This is a mess that can't be improved or fixed. I read Sunday papers...and the USA Today two or three times a week...but the normal daily paper...just isn't worth picking up...even at 50 cents. This is the modern times that we live in...and daily papers are just dying out.

[Just A Nobody]

This is a mess that can't be improved or fixed.

Clearly, you misunerstood my comment. I was advocating for a 50-75.5% decline, believing that 5.5% decline was not nearly enough.

[ken21]

inflated accounting numbers are only important when corporations such as citibank, enron, world com, qwest, etc mis-report.

they are not important when the media who reported on these mis-reports, mis-report themselves. (/s)

[GadareneDemoniac]

Correction: the gate guard's dog and birdcage.

[prfix]

What's really important is the integrity of the auditing system which is supposedly supervised by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Why the ABC allowed the LA Times to conduct a "simultaneous" audit last September is a question that has not been answered.

http://www.geocities.com/truthmasters/watch04-4.html#1031

Apart from public confidence in the system, this information is of particular importance to advertisers since the rates they pay are dependent on circulation numbers.