Newspaper Circulation Continues to Drop
NEW YORK -- For those holding out for some improvement in print circulation, this morning brings disappointment. The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) released the latest figures for the six- month period ending September 2008 and the report shows major drops in circulation at the big metros. According to ABC for the 507 newspapers reporting in this period, daily circulation slipped 4.6% to 38,165,848 copies. For the 571 papers, Sunday dropped 4.8% to 43,631,646 copies.
Top 10 daily papers:
1. USA TODAY -- 2,293,310 -- 0.01%
2. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL -- 2,011,999 -- 0.01%
3. NEW YORK TIMES -- 1,000,665 -- (-3.58%)
4. LOS ANGELES TIMES -- 739,147 -- (-5.20%)
5. DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK -- 632,595 -- (-7.16%)
6. NEW YORK POST -- 625,421 -- (-6.25%)
7. THE WASHINGTON POST -- 622,714 -- (-1.94%)
8. CHICAGO TRIBUNE -- 516,032 -- (-7.75%)
9. HOUSTON CHRONICLE -- 448,271 -- (-11.66%)
10. NEWSDAY -- 377,517 -- (-2.58%)
Top 10 papers by Sunday circulation:
1. THE NEW YORK TIMES -- 1,438,585 -- (-4.12%)
2. LOS ANGELES TIMES -- 1,055,076 -- (-5.13%)
3. THE WASHINGTON POST -- 866,057 -- (-3.19%)
4. CHICAGO TRIBUNE -- 864,845 -- (-5.78%)
5. DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK -- 674,104 -- (-7.19%)
6. DETROIT FREE PRESS -- 605,369 -- (-3.73%)
7. HOUSTON CHRONICLE -- 584,164 -- (-15.73%)
8. THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER -- 556,426 -- (-13.75%)
9. DENVER POST/ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS -- 545,442 -- (-9.13%)
10. STAR TRIBUNE, MINNEAPOLIS -- 520,828 -- (-8.63%)
13 Comments:
Naw, this has nothing to do with them being shills for Obama.
Nothink!
The daily NY Times is almost $60 including the weekend papers in Denver, Colorado. We get the Denver Post and the Wall Street Journal. If the NYT were cheaper we would continue to subscribe.
I guess I was too conservative when I led off a post about the declining circulation of the New York Times with this:
"Sometime, within the next twelve to eighteen months, the average circulation of the weekday edition of the New York Times will drop below one million. This event marks the continuing decline in the fortunes of what had been the U.S. newspaper of record as the New York Times' average circulation has been well above this level for decades."
At the time, the New York Times had reported that its daily circulation was 1,066,600 (that would be as of September 2007). At today's reported 1,000,665, I'm just 665 away from being correct.
More interesting, here's the year over year loss in daily circulation since 2005, the last year in which they had an uptick in their numbers:
2006 ... -32,200
2007 ... -37,000
2008 ... -65,935
At roughly 6% of their previous year's circulation, that's some acceleration in their decline for 2008.
Who needs a newspaper other than for coupons and sale ads. By now, everyone knows their editorial slant and I, for one, don't want to read their bias on every page.
The internet provides the news and all points of view to choose from.
#1 Rule of business: give the people what they want (see Fox News).
Bailout for newspapers anyone??
Markets in Everything: Americans Read Less
Where I go to school, there is a "readership" fee ($2.50 for the semester) in our tuition. They then place all around campus machines from which we can can use our student ID's to get the NYTimes, USA Today, and the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Many days there are numerous copies of each that remain in the machines. I wonder if those papers are included in the newspaper circulation figures.
I also wonder if the all those USA Today's laying at your door in hotels are included.
If find it most interesting that the Wall Street Journal's numbers are at least steady, even after much of their content is now available free of charge on the internet.
No more newspaper ink on my walls now that I am an "Internet Newspaper Only" hosehold.
"hosehold"?
I thought I was the only Canuck!
Question. Does the decline in newspaper circulation represent:
1. the rise of alternative news sources
2. the declining time that people spend getting information and their demands for timely information vs. getting a newspaper that gives the news of the previous day
3. a public shift in taste away from predominantly opinion based news
For whatever reason or combination of reasons, the present product is currently not connecting with its customer base.
I would agree with those points, qt. People are now used to getting their news when, where and how they want it. Advertisers are also taking their dollars online, and with the recent financial downturns, more and more publications are forced to downsize. Even before all of that, media affiliations allowed publications to share their news and with a smaller staff, wire services are a much bigger play for our local papers. LA Times just announced around 75 job cuts. The Christian Science Monitor is stopping production of their M-F print editions and going online. There are a few others, but the reasons you named as well as things that have aleady been occuring, are coming together and changing the media landscape. A few ears ago, we weren't too worried as "traditional" media learned to work hand-in-hand with the online world. However, with circulation continuing to decrease, it would be interesting to see what happens next.
People are tired of the left wing media. The publishers of these rags will finally understand it when they go out of business. Publish a newspaper that is fair and balanced and people will red it, and look forward to getting it. And pray tell where oh where are the investigating reports we use to read. Let them hire this type and use the resources to look into the crime thats being committed in Washington. Check the members of congress who hire relatives and lackeys who waste the taxpayers money.
I have not bought a newspaper in years. They do not report the news. They report a bias on what they want the public to believe. I am cutting back on most TV news as the reporting is the same. If the public does not get it then "poor public".
Billy Bob
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