Monday, April 27, 2009

Uh oh... latest circulation figures show steep drop

Here are the top 25 daily newspapers ranked by circulation for the six months ending March 2009, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Results show a steep drop in readership.

The percent change compares daily circulation for the same period ending in March 2008. The daily averages are Monday-through-Friday.

USA TODAY -- 2,113,725 – (-7.46%)
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL -- 2,082,189 -- 0.61%
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- 1,039,031 -- (-3.55%)
LOS ANGELES TIMES -- 723,181 -- (-6.55%)
THE WASHINGTON POST -- 665,383 -- (-1.16%)
DAILY NEWS (NEW YORK) -- 602,857 -- (-14.26%)
NEW YORK POST -- 558,140 -- (-20.55%)
CHICAGO TRIBUNE -- 501,202 -- (-7.47%)
HOUSTON CHRONICLE -- 425,138 -- (-13.96%)
THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC -- 389,701 -- (-5.72%)
THE DENVER POST (02/28/2009 to 03/31/2009) -- 371,728 -- N/A
NEWSDAY -- 368,194 -- (-3.01%)
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS -- 331,907 -- (-9.88%)
STAR-TRIBUNE, MINNEAPOLIS -- 320,076 -- (-0.71%)
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES -- 312,141 -- (-0.04%)
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- 312,118 -- (-15.72%)
THE BOSTON GLOBE -- 302,638 -- (-13.68%)
THE PLAIN DEALER, CLEVELAND -- 291,630 -- (-11.70%)
DETROIT FREE PRESS -- 290,730 -- (-5.90%)
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER -- 288,298 -- (-13.72%)
THE STAR-LEDGER, NEWARK, N.J. -- 287,082 -- (-16.82%)
ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES -- 283,093 -- (-10.42%)
THE OREGONIAN, PORTLAND -- 268,512 -- (-11.76%)
THE ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION -- 261,828 -- (-19.91%)
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE -- 261,253 -- (-9.53%)

Daily circulation fell an average of 7% for the 395 newspapers reporting. McClatchy reported a decline of 9%.

I'll have more info later, stay tuned.
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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can you post the entire list or at least the top 50 or so?

Anonymous said...

Can the MNI, lib, idiots chime in here? I'd love to hear your pathetic spin?

Anonymous said...

I don't get.

I thought all those Obama Wins/Inauguration editions would fix the newspaper industry.

Where's the Hope and Change? LOL.

JWM said...

I'd also like to see the top 50, especially the Raleigh N&O's numbers.

Thanks for bringing us the top 25.

John in Carolina

Anonymous said...

Any one know how that unbiased, we at MNI always sell TRINKETS each and every election sale went?

I'd love to know!

Anonymous said...

“All the Suckers in the World Can't Save Newspapers”
Media Crack
By Hamilton Nolan

Con artists are marching around Colorado selling unsuspecting old people subscriptions to the nonexistent "new" version of the dead Rocky Mountain News. This is what happens when old people don't read media blogs frequently enough.

http://gawker.com/5229766/all-the-suckers-in-the-world-cant-save-newspapers

Anonymous said...

*Like CPR For a Corpse*
By curtislowe

-Kerry aims to rescue newspapers-

Is there anything these asshats on that hill in Washington think they cannot or should not stick their noses into?
http://curtislowe.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/like-cpr-for-a-corpse/

Anonymous said...

“All the Suckers in the World Can't Save"

SPOT ON!

Lot's of kool aid drinkers out there to scalp. After all, they are so, so willing.

Anonymous said...

HAHAHAHAHAAH Lost another one to Geico!

VANITY FARE: CONDE NAST Closing 'PORTFOLIO' Magazine... Lost $100,000,000 in two years

Anonymous said...

Part of the reason that papers like the Wall Street Journal and our own Pittsburgh Tribune-Review are posting minor gains in circulation while others are losing subscribers in droves is the quality of the journalism.

The establishment press parrots the same lines used by the network news. The network news is watched by the same ignorami who no longer see the need to subscribe to the establishment fishwrap.

The dwindling audience who actually enjoys reading and reasoning looks for papers which actually produce some good, original journalism rather than regurgitated wire copy from AP or Reuters or tired editorials from the same old out-of-touch politically correct crowd.

The profession has written their own obituary by their failure to see the obvious. Even Pravda criticized the Politburo once in awhile to entertain their readers.

Anonymous said...

At one point, three or four years ago, for a major metropolitan newspaper to lose 4% or 5% of it daily circulation would have been considered bad news.

For the six month period ending in March, ten of the top twenty-five largest dailies in the US lost over 10% of theirs, according to circulation audit firm The Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Joe said...

I work for a nationally known paper and I see the run to number for the press every day. Certainly its not audited by the ABC, but it does give one insight into the rough circulation. I don't think anyone's printing extra papers to toss in the dumpster to raise circ numbers. My paper didn't make the top 25 but I think is in the top 50.

Anonymous said...

I work for a nationally known paper and I see the run to number for the press everyday.


==============
The pressroom is not where circulation or waste is counted Joe. That happens after it disappears through the floor.

Anonymous said...

I totally buy what Joe says. Anyone who works on the business-side (that means, NON-JOURNALISTS) knows that newsprint waste costs money and is stringently avoided, just like any unnecessary expense. It's a matter of pride to hit the day's draw (press order) as closely as possible to the number of copies sold so that there are very few returns (unsold copies).

A newspaper knows how many pages in the day's paper, how much newsprint it will take to print it, how many papers will fit in a bundle, and how many bundles need to go to each distribution center and single copy location. This is not a process that leaves room for padding. The bean counters are all over it. Get real.

I haven't seen anyone talk about where all the "lost" circulation went. They're just hyping up the decline and doomsaying. Well, for your information, lots of it was by design -- copies like hotels and other 3rd party sales that didn't add value to advertisers. Newspapers consciously eliminated expensive circulation that did not produce adequate ROI to justify the outlay of dollars.

The usual fascist idiots are talking about a conspiracy to inflate circulation numbers without (as usual) having any real grounding in knowledge of the business.

Anonymous said...

The only real inflating of circulation numbers would be through comp papers. These are usually used in hopes that the people who get them will like what they see and subscribe.

All the other tricks went away after newsprint costs spiked and advertising dropped. It just doesn't pay to do it anymore.