Double Digit Circ Losses Hit 11 Big Dailies

(MoneyWatch)  Twenty-three of the nation's top 25 daily newspapers, as measured by weekday circulation, lost readers during the past year ending in March, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). The only newspaper to not drop in circulation was the Wall Street Journal, which recorded a very modest 0.61 percent growth. (The Denver Post added some readers, but only due to the Rocky Mountain News closure.)

The biggest losers were eleven papers that suffered circulation declines at unsustainable double-digit rates. If for no other reason than their names appear on this list, I'd have to rate each of them as seriously endangered.

Newspaper Circulation Loss (Percentage)

1. New York Post -20.55
2. Atlanta Journal Constitution -19.91
3. Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.) -16.82
4. San Francisco Chronicle -15.72
5. Daily News (N.Y.) -14.26
6. Houston Chronicle -13.96
7. Philadelphia Inquirer -13.72
8. Boston Globe -13.68
9. Portland Oregonian -11.76
10. Cleveland Plain-Dealer -11.70
11. St. Petersburg Times (Fla.) -10.42

You can peruse the entire ABC list here.

One curious twist on all of this bad industry news is that many smaller papers, those with circulations from more like 50,000 to 200,000, are increasing. The most impressive growth came at the Memphis Commercial Appeal, which added a whopping 30.96 percent to its daily circulation total.

Other smaller papers in places like York, Pa., Fargo, N.D., Mobile, Ala., and Madison, Wisc. also recorded strong growth over the past year. You can see the ABC's Top Ten List of growth markets here.