ABC FAS-FAX: Newspaper Circulation Falls 7 Percent
This story was written by David Kaplan.
The steady downward spiral of newspaper circulation continues, as the Audit Bureau of Circulation released figures for 395 dailies that show circulation slipping 7 percent year-over-year to 34.4 million. As for the ad-heavy Sunday papers, ABC said circ fell 5.3 percent for the 557 participants to 42 million. The ABC measures are not complete; the organization only compiles data on papers will more than 50,000 circ level.
The results were mostly negative, and even for those the reported positive numbers, at best, numbers were flat. For example, WSJ was one of the few that didn't decline, but its .06 percent gain was nothing to celebrate. A rundown of how some of the largest papers fell in circulation, after the jump ...
NYT slid 3.5 percent, while Sunday circ dropped 1.7 percent. Its NYTCo (NYSE: NYT) sister, The Boston Globe, fell 13.6 percent daily and 11.2 percent on Sundays, a combination of numbers that will only raise the uncertainty of its survival.
WaPo slipped 1.6 percent; Sunday was down 2.3 percent.
USA Today, still the largest paper despite the loss of its hotel subscription business, dropped 7.4 percent.
New York's Daily News was off 14%, but rival New York Post lost even more, at minus 20%. The Star-Ledger of Newark shed over 16%. Newsday, by comparison, lost 3%*.
Daily circulation at the Miami Herald fell 15.8% to 202,122. Sunday is down 13.1% to 270,166.
San Francisco Chronicle shed 15.7% of daily copies to 312,118. Sunday fell 16.5% to 312,118.
Tribune Co. papers rolled out highly touted redesigns in this period, but lost readers. The Chicago Tribune lost 7.4% of its daily circulation to 501,202 and 4.5% on Sunday to 858,256 copies. Circulation plunged at the Los Angeles Times at 6.5% of its daily circulation (Monday through Friday) to 723,181 copies. Sunday was down 7.4% to 1,019,388.
By David Kaplan