Sun Readership Up as Circulation Declines Slow (daydreaming Baltimore Sun)

biz.yahoo.com ^ | 8 May 2006 | staff

[Grampa Dave]

Press Release Source: The Baltimore Sun

Sun Readership Up as Circulation Declines Slow Monday May 8, 5:58 pm ET Sun Issues Correction to ABC FAS-Fax Release

BALTIMORE, May 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Even as the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations FAS-FAX release showed The Sun's recent circulation declines slowing, new research shows the paper's readership actually growing. The March ABC Publisher's Statement shows Sun overall daily (Monday - Friday average) circulation down about 3% and Sunday down about 6.6%, largely reflecting the newspaper's continued reduction of bulk or third-party sponsored distribution. (A mistake in ABC's original release this morning erroneously reported that The Sun's daily circulation was down 9.3%.)

For the reporting period that ended March 30, 2006, The Sun reported overall average daily circulation (Monday through Friday) of 236,317, down from 243,737 in March 2005. Average Sunday circulation was 401,918, down from 430,675 a year ago.

But the Sun circulation most valued by advertisers, individually paid circulation (home delivery plus single copy), was essentially flat for the reporting period, dropping just 1.2% daily and 1.8% Sunday. In addition, the latest data from the Baltimore Sun's consumer tracking study -- which measures daily newspaper readership by asking market adults "Did you read The Sun in the last week?" -- shows a gain of approximately 100,000 in the paper's weekly readership since the last time the survey was conducted in October 2005.

"While total circulation of The Sun is slightly lower, clearly the paper is getting into the hands of more people who are reading it," says Baltimore Sun Vice President of Circulation Louis Maranto. "We believe the improvement reflects the increased volume of state and county news, as well as readers' growing levels of comfort with the redesign we introduced last fall. The growth in readership combined with the slowing of individually paid circulation declines validates our decision to reduce our bulk distribution and focus on getting the paper into the hands of people who are actively seeking it out."

The Baltimore Sun is Maryland's leading news and information company, reaching more than 1.2 million readers and more than 75% of market adults every week. Founded in 1837 and acquired in 2000 by Tribune, the company publishes The Sun, baltimoresun.com, the Patuxent and Homestead community newspapers and multiple niche print and online publications.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: The Baltimore Sun

[Grampa Dave]

That is a good question. If one doesn't advertise on their website and only advertises in the fishwrap. Hits on the website doesn't do that advertiser any good.

[Grampa Dave]

You are probably right.

Of course Blue City Fishwraps are faced with a growing market of people who can't read due to the union teachers in those Blue Cities.

[snarkytart]

What is that line from Spinal Tap? "It's not that our audience is getting smaller, they are getting more selective." Something like that.
___
LOL

People in MD need to pick up a FREE Baltimore Examiner, a new paper in Maryland, and it's more conservative. The owners of the San Fransico Examiner own it.
They make all their money from advertizing.

[P-40]

What utter Enron type of BS this is.

Strickly speaking, if it was Enron-type accounting, The Sun would have created a partnership for it to sell papers to when they needed the subscription numbers to go up. :)

[pissant]

Absolutely. Though it's not worthy to be used as TP.

[Grampa Dave]

Jim, any comments about the Baltimore Sun?:)

[Vision]

The Examiner isn't helping either

[Grampa Dave]

"The Examiner isn't helping either"

Is that another Baltimore paper?

[george76]

He must be fun to play golf with.

Giving himself mulligans and puts.

[Vision]

Yes, it's the new paper that is supposed to be right leaning. I don't know much about it but that it's free

http://www.examiner.com/?setEdition=Baltimore&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Branded-Baltimore

[Grampa Dave]

I'm out of here for a few hours.

If I don't respond, I'm not being rude, just off line.

[alarm rider]

The Sun Papers are without a doubt, one of the worst major newspapers in the country.

[Ptaz]

I used to live in baltimore and I know most of the hotels and crabhouses use lots of newspapers.

[snarkytart]

The Examiner isn't helping either.

____

The new Baltimore Examiner?
I like that paper, A) It's free, B) It is balanced, more conservative.

[Juan Medén]

They have started counting the people who walk by the newsstands on the assumption that they probably take a peek at the headlines as they go.

[schaketo]

The emperor has no clothes.

[Grampa Dave]

BOL: "They have started counting the people who walk by the newsstands on the assumption that they probably take a peek at the headlines as they go."

Or they are paying the check out clerks at grocery stores to say 100 people looked at the Sun's Headlines today in line #1.

[Grampa Dave]

This one sure has no clothes does he?

[Grampa Dave]

"The new Baltimore Examiner?
I like that paper, A) It's free, B) It is balanced, more conservative."

Thanks for the feedback. Why buy a Sun filled with liberal lies, spins and mantras when you can get a balanced paper for free.

[Grampa Dave]

I refused to read it, when we lived in DC area in after the Cuban Crisis.