From an Associated Press story that moved within the past 30 minutes:
"Circulation continues to drop at U.S. newspapers. Figures released this morning by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show average daily circulation fell 8.7% in the six months ended March 31 compared to the same period a year earlier. That's not as steep a decline as the 10.6% drop in the last reporting period, which ran from April through September last year. Sunday circulation fell 6.5%."
This appears to be the AP's initial report. Oddly, ABC's website doesn't show anything yet in its press release section. Meanwhile, I'm searching elsewhere on the Web for longer stories that presumably break out results for individual papers, including USA Today and any others published by Gannett.
So, far I've found one individual report, released by the Chicago Sun-Times, which has disclosed a steep plunge in its circulation. In a statement, the struggling paper says:
"The Chicago Sun-Times’ Monday through Friday average circulation over the six-month reporting period was 268,803, a decline of 13.9% compared with 312,141 during the same period a year ago. The newspaper's Sunday circulation over the six-month reporting period was 247,416, down 2.7% from 254,380 during the same period a year ago. Over the same timeframe, Saturday's average circulation was 199,831, down 12.1% from a year ago. The latest figures are according to the FAS-FAX report released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) early this morning."
Related: Editor & Publisher says today's circulation report likely to be "most confounding yet"
Monday, April 26, 2010
4 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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if you want the report, you gotta pay for it -- $400.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't at all surprising. The poor economy is sure to convince some people not to subscribe. On top of that, the rampant cost cutting at newspapers has resulted in smaller products that are -- in many cases -- filled with stories by green or overworked reporters. In short, papers have become less valuable.
ReplyDeleteIf newspapers want to see circulation increases, they need to become better in the face of the increased competition they are facing. This is common sense.
My paper slowly got rid of everything that I liked about it over the past five years. Now, it's making a big push to get Sunday readers back. Too late. I just don't care anymore.
Although not updated with this new information, you can access ABC circulation via this website, and it does not carry a fee, at least hasn't to now:
ReplyDeleteabcas3.accessabc.com/ecirc/newsform.asp
What is really pitiful is how FAS-FAX is used to pull a fast one on the advertisers it is supposed to protect. E-editions (mostly NIE and duplicate subs) are propping up, for lack of a better term, many dailies. Worthless to advertisers, but pure gold to the spinmeisters.
ReplyDelete