Newspapers continue to report big declines in circulation

Print circulation continues on its steep downward slide, the Audit Bureau of Circulations revealed this morning in releasing the latest numbers for some of the country's largest dailies in the six-month period ending March 31, 2008. When a full analysis appears it is expected to find, according to sources, the biggest dip yet, about 3.5% daily and 4.5 for Sunday.

The following circulation compares the new data to the same period a year ago. Daily circulation is the Monday-through-Friday average.

-- The New York Times lost more than 150,000 copies on Sunday. Circulation on that day fell a whopping 9.2% to 1,476,400. The paper's daily circulation declined 3.8% to 1,077,256.

-- At The Washington Post, daily circulation decreased 3.5% to 673,180 and Sunday dropped 4.3% to 890,163.

-- Meanwhile, daily circulation at The Wall Street Journal grew a fraction of a percent, up 0.3% to 2,069,463 copies. At USA Today, circulation inched up 0.27%* to 2,284,219. (Correction: the original version of this story said USA Today's daily circulation was up 2.7%.)

-- The New York Post lost over 3% daily and more than 8% on Sunday.

-- Daily circulation at The Orange County Register plunged 11.9% to 250,724 and Sunday fell 5.3% to 311,982.

-- In Los Angeles, the Times lost more than 40,000 daily copies. Daily circulation there was down 5.1% to 773,884. Sunday declined 6.0% to 1,101,981.

-- The San Francisco Chronicle reported that daily circulation dropped 4.2% to 370,345, while Sunday dropped 3.0% to 424,603.

-- The Boston Globe's daily circulation fell 8.3% to 350,605. Sunday declined 6.4% to 525,959.

-- The Miami Herald reported daily circulation lost more than 11% with 240,223 copies while Sunday dropped 9% to 311,245.

-- Daily circulation at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution declined 8.5% to 326,907 while Sunday fell 5.0% to 497,149.

-- Daily and Sunday circulation at the Chicago Tribune both dropped 4.4% to 541,663 and 898,703, respectively. In a statement released this morning, the paper noted that it increased its readership with its other products like the free Redeye and its Web site.

"We are proud of the fact that in today's intensely competitive media environment, we have grown both our print and online audiences," Scott Smith, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, said in a statement.

-- Daily circulation at The Indianapolis Star slipped 2.3% to 255,303 while Sunday tumbled more than 8% to 324,349.

-- Good news in Baltimore: The Sun made a slight gain in daily circulation, up 0.1% (about 200 copies) to 232,360. Sunday circulation was down slightly 1.2% to 372,970.

-- Daily circulation at The St. Louis Post-Dispatch plunged 8.5% Monday-Friday to 255,057. However, the paper managed to grow its Sunday circulation by 1.6% to 414,564.

Not all papers bled circulation this winter. The Audit Bureau of Circulations reported the top dozen gainers -- dailies with 50,000 or more in paid circulation -- and three big metros make the list.

The San Jose Mercury News, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and the Cincinnati Enquirer all reported nice increases in daily circulation.

El Diario La Prensa topped the list advancing its daily circulation 7.6% to 53,856 copies.

Below is a list of the top 12 daily (Monday-Friday) gainers for the six months ending March 2008 provided by ABC. These are the preliminary figures as filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and are subject to audit.

Top Circulation Gainers
Newspapers with More Than 50,000 Paid Circulation

Total Paid Circ

Newspaper Name -- As of 3/31/08 -- As of 3/31/07 -- % Gain

EL DIARIO LA PRENSA: 53,856 -- 50,047 -- 7.61%

THE TIMES, MUNSTER, IND.: 85,195 -- 82,709 -- 3.01%

THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER: 212,369 -- 206,320 -- 2.93%

TRENTON (N.J.) TIMES: 54,745 -- 53,197 -- 2.91%

THE DAILY HERALD, EVERETT, WASH.: 50,272 -- 49,109 -- 2.37%

VENTURA (CALIF.) COUNTY STAR : 86,276 -- 84,785 -- 1.76%

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS: 234,772 -- 230,870 -- 1.69%

GREENSBURG (PA.) TRIBUNE-REVIEW: 150,911 -- 148,416 -- 1.68%

THE ADVOCATE, BATON ROUGE, LA. : 97,912 -- 96,558 -- 1.40%

THE STANDARD-EXAMINER, OGDEN, UTAH: 61,696 -- 60,956 -- 1.21%

MOBILE (ALA.) PRESS-REGISTER: 99,433 -- 98,245 -- 1.21%

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER: 129,563 -- 128,016 -- 1.21%

Here is how the top 25 Sunday newspapers are ranked, and how they performed, according to the new FAS-FAX from the Audit Bureau of Circulations released this morning.

It covers the six-month period ending on March 31 and is subject to audit.

Average Sunday Circulation at Top 25 U.S. Daily Newspapers

Newspaper Name -- As of 03/31/08 -- As of 03/31/07 -- % Change

THE NEW YORK TIMES: 1,476,400 -- 1,627,062 -- (-9.26%)
LOS ANGELES TIMES: 1,101,981 -- 1,173,095 -- (-6.06%)
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: 898,703 -- 940,621 -- (-4.46%)
THE WASHINGTON POST: 890,163 -- 930,989 -- (-4.39%)
DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK: -- 704,157 -- 775,544 -- (-9.20%)

HOUSTON CHRONICLE: 632,797 -- 677,425 -- (-6.59%)
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: 630,665 -- 672,953 -- (-6.28%)
DETROIT FREE PRESS: 606,374 -- 639,531 -- (-5.18%)
DENVER POST/ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS: 600,026 -- 704,169 -- (-14.79%)
STAR TRIBUNE, MINNEAPOLIS: 534,063 -- 574,385 -- (-7.02%)

BOSTON GLOBE: 525,959 -- 562,273 -- (-6.46%)
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS: 520,215 -- 563,079 -- (-7.61%)
THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC: 515,523 -- 541,757 -- (-4.84%)
NEWARK STAR-LEDGER: 500,382 -- 570,523 -- (-12.29%)
THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: 497,149 -- 523,687 -- (-5.07%)

NEWSDAY: 441,728 -- 464,169 -- (-4.83%)
ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES: 432,779 -- 430,893 -- 0.44%
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER: 428,090 -- 442,482 -- (-3.25%)
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: 424,603 -- 438,006 -- (-3.06%)
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: 414,564 -- 407,754 -- 1.67%

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, TIMES: 409,231 -- 423,634 -- (-3.40%)
NEW YORK POST: 401,315 -- 439,202 -- (-8.63%)
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL: 384,539 -- 400,317 -- (-3.94%)
THE SUN, BALTIMORE: 372,970 -- 377,561 -- (-1.22%)
THE OREGONIAN: 361,988 -- 375,914 -- (-3.70%)

Top American newspapers posted further declines in weekday circulation in the six-month period ended in March, with the exception of USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. Apart from those two national dailies, which eked out gains of under 1 percent each, every other newspaper in the top 20 posted declines, according to figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Newspaper circulation has been on a declining trend since the 1980s, but the pace of decline has picked up in recent years as more people go to the Internet for news, information and entertainment.

Metropolitan dailies have suffered the worst declines, a trend that continued in the most recent reporting period, with The Dallas Morning News reporting a 10.6 percent drop, to 368,313. Other metropolitan dailies also posted steep declines, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, down 8.5 percent, to 326,907, and The Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, down 6.7 percent, to 321,984.

The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) released The Blade’s March 2009 circulation data in a supplemental FAS-FAX report May 11, showing a drop in circulation by 12,000 Sunday newspapers for the Toledo daily since March 2008. ABC reported The Blade has dropped from 178,274 Sunday circulation in December 2004 to 135,567 in March 2009. Its combined Monday through Friday numbers have dropped from 131,117 in December 2005 to 110, 728 in March 2009.

The Blade did not appear in the ABC’s original March FAS-FAX report as it had resigned and was in negotiations with the auditors to renew membership. The ABC confirmed May 7 that the newspaper rescinded its resignation. The Blade’s Director of Circulation, Dick Fuller, did not return repeated phone calls or e-mails by press time.

Media Business Analyst Rick Edmonds, of the Poynter Institute, said when circulation began to drop nationally four years ago, mainly the metropolitan area newspapers felt the effects. Now, medium-sized city newspapers are losing circulation. “It seems like the percentage decrease keeps getting worse with time,” he said. “The national average was 7 percent daily, and Sunday was roughly the same. That’s compared to 4.5 percent in 2008.”

Circulation averages for the six months ended: 9/30/2007

Publication Name Frequency Circulation Type Total Circulation* Filing Status
BLADE, TOLEDO (LUCAS CO.) SAT M DLY 119,611
BLADE, TOLEDO (LUCAS CO.) AVG M (M-F) DLY 120,125
BLADE, TOLEDO (LUCAS CO.) SUN DLY 150,019

Circulation

125,956 Daily
154,566 Sunday

2007 Top 100 Daily Newspapers in the U.S. by Circulation [pdf]

The Audit Bureau of Circulations' Top 150 daily newspapers. The Blade has a Sunday circulation of 183,632. Here are Blade daily circulation numbers from past years ...

The numbers are from the Audit Bureau of Circulations for reporting periods ending September 30 for each year listed.

Toledo Blade average daily circulation:

1996 - 147,365

1997 - 145,800

1998 - 146,138

1999 - 144,887

2000 - 137,792

2001 - 140,406

2002 - 140,628

2003 - 139,520

2004 - 139,346 (Blade report)

Parade, the Sunday newspaper magazine, said yesterday that it had added another large-market newspaper to its distribution, reaching a record of 337 across the country. The Toledo (Ohio) Blade, with a Sunday circulation of 215,490, will start carrying the magazine in March, bringing Parade's total circulation to 36.5 million, up about 1 percent from last year.

The latest data shows that when taking print and online readership into account, newspapers are actually losing market share.

First, a primer: Scarborough measures the adults in a local DMA who "read or looked into" the daily (Monday-through-Friday) or Sunday print edition of the paper during the past seven days. The weekly Web site audience reach measures adults in a given DMA who visited the newspaper's core Web site within the past seven days. The integrated newspaper audience reach is the percentage of adults who have read the printed newspaper or visited the Web site or did both during the past seven days.

E&P compared the 2008 data with the 2007 Scarborough report in order to get a sense of where overall readership was trending. Twenty markets were chosen. The big ones like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, where the DMAs included several newspapers, and markets with newspapers under joint operating agreements were not included.

When comparing 20 papers, only two -- The Atlanta Journal Constitution and The Oregonian in Portland -- increased their integrated market reach year-over-year.

The good news is that most of the 20 papers grew their online audience. At worst online readership was flat.

Print readership though declined in almost every market.

Paper -- '08 Print Reach -- '08 Online Reach -- '08 Integrated Reach -- ['07 Print Reach -- '07 Online Reach -- '07 Integrated Reach]

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 48% -- 18% -- 54% [47% -- 17% -- 53%]

Baltimore Sun : 51% -- 10% -- 54% [55% -- 10% -- 58%]

The Blade, Toledo, Ohio: 53% -- 7% -- 55% [58% -- 7% -- 59%]

Buffalo (N.Y.) News: 64% -- 13% -- 66% [67% -- 11% -- 69%]

The Charlotte Observer: 44% -- 12% -- 47% [47% -- 8% -- 50%]

The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch: 58% -- 11% -- 60% [61% -- 8% -- 62%]

The Des Moines (Iowa) Register: 70% -- 11% -- 71% [71% -- 10% -- 73%]

Fresno (Calif.) Bee: 48% -- 6% -- 49% [54% -- 4% -- 55%]

Houston Chronicle: 51% -- 12% -- 55% [55% -- 10% -- 57%]

The Indianapolis Star: 51% -- 13% -- 53% [51% -- 12% -- 54%]

Kansas City Star: 58% -- 12% -- 61% [60% -- 10% -- 63%]

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 62% -- 16% -- 65% [66% -- 14% -- 68%]

Nashville Tennessean: 46% -- 9% -- 48% [51% -- 7% -- 52%]

The Oklahoman: 57% -- 15% -- 62% [61% -- 13% -- 65%]

The Oregonian, Portland: 55% -- 11% -- 59% [54% -- 10% -- 56%]

The Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch: 66% -- 14% -- 69% [66% -- 13% -- 69%]

Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle: 79% -- 14% -- 81% [ 84% -- 13% -- 85%]

The San Diego-Union Tribune: 54% -- 18% -- 59% [57% -- 16% -- 61%]

The Post-Standard, Syracuse, N.Y.: 67% -- 15% -- 68% [67% -- 14% -- 70%]

The Washington Post: 61% -- 22% -- 66% [63% -- 21% -- 67%]

With print revenue down and online revenue growing, newspaper executives are anticipating the day when big city dailies and national papers will abandon their print versions. That day has arrived in Madison, Wis.

On Saturday, The Capital Times, the city's fabled 90-year-old daily newspaper founded in response to the jingoist fervor of World War I, stopped printing to devote itself to publishing its daily report on the Web. (The staff will also produce two print products: a free weekly entertainment guide inserted in Madison's remaining daily newspaper, The Wisconsin State Journal, and a news weekly that will be distributed with the paper.)

The transition in Madison, while long foretold The Capital Times was doubly part of a dying breed, being the afternoon paper in a two-newspaper town has hardly been neat and clean and cathartic.

Alan Block says in that letter, that the "days are over" when one division, the cablevision division which he runs, will send profits to rescue the other and the Blade hasn't turned a profit since the early 1980's. Block informed the employes in that letter that the Blade "isn't healthy" and that no job will be secure until it is.