NEW YORK, Oct. 9, 2009
USA Today to Post 17% Drop in Circulation
Newspaper's Publisher Expects Sales to Increase as Economy Recovers
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(AP)
While most large dailies are struggling to hold on to print subscribers and newsstand sales, USA Today is being hurt by a drop in traffic at airports and hotels, the newspaper's mainstay. It also increased the price of single copies to $1 from 75 cents last December.
In a memo to staff Friday, USA Today publisher David Hunke said the average circulation at the Gannett Co.-owned newspaper was 1.88 million from April through September. That marks a loss of 398,000 copies, or 17 percent, from the same period the year before at the newspaper, which is printed on weekdays only.
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The figures for USA Today and other newspapers are due to be released Oct. 26 by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The decline was reported earlier by Editor & Publisher.
The latest circulation numbers could show USA Today has lost its place as the country's largest newspaper. The Wall Street Journal, which has been adding more general-interest news and competing for hotel subscriptions, was one of only two newspapers in the top 25 that increased its circulation in the last reporting period, which ran from October 2008 through March. It was up 0.6 percent to 2.08 million.
For the same period, USA Today reported a 7.5 percent drop to 2.11 million, which at the time was its largest decline ever.
In Friday's memo, Hunke said USA Today is confident its decline is temporary.
"We fully expect to see circulation increases again as the economy recovers," he said. "I'm encouraged by the fact that despite the tough travel economy, we have not lost a single hotel relationship during this recession."
That may be so, but the Journal has made inroads. In April, Marriott International Inc. said it would offer guests at some hotels a choice between USA Today, the Journal and the local daily.
Emily Edmonds, a spokeswoman for Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones & Co., said the newspaper had no comment on the circulation numbers.
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Add a Comment See all 12 Comments
- I suspect it will drop more. If you present a left wing political view continuously, slant news to support the Democrats and Obama instead of acting like journalists and protecting the public, and are rarely question the government, people who see through this are not going to pay money for this partisan non-news publication. USA is going to learn the hard way that most people don't agree with the elitist wine-sipping limo liberals.
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- newspapers and news magazines are too slow these days. by the time they are published it's all old news. tv and radio news beats them as well as the internet.
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- GOOD! RIP USA TODAY - I stopped reading it after their front LIES about stimulus related airport "pork."
Those "little airports" that need the runway fixed every 20 years or so, contribute BILLIONS to the US Economy.
What's next USA Today? Is maintaining shipping lanes and freeways pork too? I guess we can go back to dirt roads while China builds all of our cars, jets, and electronics... - Reply to this comment
- All the newspapers have been dropping and since the UselessToday is nothing more than colored pictures with a sports section that isn't much of a surprise.
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- Let's see...75 cents to $1, that's a 33% increase. Compared to a 17% drop in circulation, that's better than a 100% compensation for the 17% drop. Hmmmm...Board Chairman: "Let's get Wallace in here to run us some new numbers. Maybe we should raise the price to $1.25 to get a better compensation."
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- We still wrap our fish in newspaper so maybe keep the New York Times
up and running because with the garbage they print it keeps the fish
real fresh. - Reply to this comment
- This is good news. USA McNews is worthless.
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- Why kill all those trees so the politicians can see their incompetence in
print. The newspaper industry is dead. Electronic media is the wave of the
future. All they print is garbage. The integrity of the news media is now being questioned. I get to explore all sides of the question now. - Reply to this comment
- I do NOT read many newspapers these days and have completely stopped reading certain ones because they don't include RELEVANT, SERIOUS, IMPORTANT, NEWSWORTHY news!
They are mostly reporting FLUFF! So, who cares what they say?!
They did THEMSELVES in! - Reply to this comment
- They are droping like everything else becuase the main stream media is part of the government media complex perhaps it should be called the USSA Today instead of the USA Today.
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- Why is this news? There has been a 17% drop in everything.
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- GOOD!! USA Today took a ridiculously small amount of federal money used to repair airports. Airports that hadn't been repaired in over 20 years and tried to turn it into a front page story about "pork".
Think it doesn't matter? They'll do the same thing with parks, marinas, healthcare, etc...
I HOPE USA TODAY DROPS DEAD....
- GOOD!! USA Today took a ridiculously small amount of federal money used to repair airports. Airports that hadn't been repaired in over 20 years and tried to turn it into a front page story about "pork".
