Responding to a reader's request, I've updated my list of circulation losses among the 81 U.S. community newspapers since 2005, just before the industry tipped into a major downturn.
Papers in New Jersey and Ohio accounted for six of the 10 biggest losers during 2005-2012, according to Gannett's regulatory filings. No. 1: the Courier News in Somerville, N.J. Circulation there plunged 62%, to 14,219 weekdays vs. 37,282 in 2005.
The Pacific Daily News in Hagatna, Guam, had the smallest decline: 19%, to 16,484 copies.
Across all the 81 papers, circulation fell an average 36%.
Related: AAM's searchable database has figures as of March 31.
Papers in New Jersey and Ohio accounted for six of the 10 biggest losers during 2005-2012, according to Gannett's regulatory filings. No. 1: the Courier News in Somerville, N.J. Circulation there plunged 62%, to 14,219 weekdays vs. 37,282 in 2005.
The Pacific Daily News in Hagatna, Guam, had the smallest decline: 19%, to 16,484 copies.
Across all the 81 papers, circulation fell an average 36%.
Related: AAM's searchable database has figures as of March 31.
Really not as bad as I expected. Gannett brass can just cut more reporters and sales people to protect the management jobs and bonuses.
ReplyDeleteThe Courier News (no hyphen): Exhibit A in how to destroy a community daily. From 37,000 to 14,000 in a region of 350,000 people. The public correctly sees that all the staff cuts and price increases lead to a worse publication. All this while their main competition out of Newark is making noise (again) about shutting down!
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Courier News relocated to Somerville NJ in 2010.
Thanks; I've corrected the spelling on the Courier News.
DeleteCorporate still thinks the paper is in Bridgewater, according to the 2012 Annual Report to shareholders.
The drop at the Courier News is disgraceful to say the least. The area it covers is prosperous and chock full of activities that cry for coverage. But hey, when ya cut, cut and cut, how can ya cover stuff????!!!!!!!!!
DeleteDoes anyone have current numbers for Cincinnati? I'm curious what impact the smaller-format had on circulation. Some like it, some don't.
ReplyDeleteThe press run has stayed pretty much the same since production moved to Columbus. Now just whether or not all of those papers are being sold.....
DeleteYou couldn't believe the numbers Cincy would put out. They play so many games with Circulation numbers. The local reaction from many I know don't really care about the swith to Columbus in terms of format. It's because the content is so limited and the news is stale. They can't get 7:05p.m. Reds final scores in the next day consistently.
ReplyDeleteThe Enquirer has easily lost more than 55,000 weekday copies under Buchanan.
DeleteHad a well-liked daily newspaper not folded during that time, and had Gannett not purchased a weekly newspaper group that once reached nearly a quarter of a million Greater Cincinnati homes, one can only imagine how much lower her numbers would be now.
What also shouldn't be lost here is that the Ohio papers leading some of Gannett’s greatest declines are led by Buchanan too.
Just a couple minute drive from the location in Bridgwater to the one in Somerville. Move was made (why else?) to save money.
ReplyDeletePretty sure the Courier-News (which was hyphenated until about 2000, so I'm going with that for old-time's sake) had a circulation around 60,000 when I started in 1998.
I recently found out that the Home News Tribune closed its East Brunswick office and is now sharing space in Somerville with the Courier News. It's about half an hour's drive away from the former office in Middlesex County, out of its coverage area. But if they are heading for one Jersey paper, I guess that doesn't matter.
DeleteThe drop in NJ circ can clearly be blamed on the failure of the upper management driven "Content Evolution" which failed to generate the expected numbers-there was no gain.
ReplyDeleteReaders aren't stupid and refuse to believe that a bunch of nice;y designed one size fits all "topic" story is a substitute for good local news coverage.
Despite this, management still believes in the top down style of micromanagement which is driving these papers in to the ground. These heads are the ones that should get lopped off in the next round of cuts.
Great post, 10:44 a.m. Great post, 10:44 a.m. I could not have said it better myself. Gannett New Jersey is run by a bunch of losers who have no concept of building identities for their newspapers and websites. Local news tailored to each newspaper and website is the way to go.
DeleteSeveral months ago, the Mansfield, Newsjournal, had a FRONT page story, on a hotel fire. The fire happen over seventy years ago! To thinks I beg contacts at Gannett to buy this paper hoping they could improve it!
ReplyDeleteThe papers to watch are the ones that are isolated, where he circulation will fall to the point where it's no longer financially feasible to print the paper.
ReplyDeleteA stop-gap in such cases is to consolidate printing with other papers nearby, as happened with a deal for MediaNews in Denver (the Denver Post) to print Gannett's Fort Collins paper. That's an hour away.
But what about the Arizona Republic, for example? There's nothing close enough or big enough to print it. And it's not going to be able to pick up printing contracts from other Arizona papers (Tucson, for example) to sustain its printing plant.
There undoubtedly others out there in the same tough spot.
Gannett's not the only publisher that farms out printing and distribution.
DeleteAs of 3/31/2013, Courier News circulation was 16,541 for Sunday and 12,990 for Monday-Saturday.
ReplyDeleteTo add a grain of salt to these figures: Certainly, Gannett has gutted its products so badly that circulation has declined to some extent solely because of that. But some former print readers have migrated to web subscribers, and their loss as a print subscriber who has migrated to digital doesn't paint the whole picture. Modern circulation numbers should include some sort of digital subscriber and print subscriber metric. Just because the Daily Planet's print circulation went from 70,000 to 40,000 doesn't mean they completely lost 30,000 readers.
ReplyDeleteThis is true. But for that to happen, the industry -- and I'm now sure we even know how to define the industry -- must agree on a traffic measurement standard that can be audited.
DeleteThe problem is digital doesn't currently make the revenue that print does. The money is still in print.
DeleteIt's really not relevant to know how many readers moved to digital from print.
As long as print continues to decline, Gannett's newspapers will continue to decline.
Cutting reporters, editors and content only speeds up the print decline.
Digital doesn't have a winning formula to make lots of money like print used to do.
And your point is, wait wait don't tell me, PRINT IS DECLINING? That is shocking news.
ReplyDeleteAh, print is declining, but the declines in NJ have been so staggering that there is a reason other than the gradual decline of print.
ReplyDeleteLook at the Morristown Daily Record. As the data notes, the circulation was in excess of 40,000 in 2005, not all that long ago. Now it is actually about 16,000 during the week. Such a decline is a product of a newspaper philosophy that puts fluff over real news. The paper becomes irrelevant and you see the results.
The New Jersey papers are the victims of Gannett's one size fits all approach. Each newspaper and website should have its own identity. Regionalization has failed miserably. The numbers show it and they don't lie. Each paper and website should be hyper local with news tailored to their areas.
DeleteThe circulation drops in Gannett's small and especially isolated markets should be alarming because those are the markets that tend to be most loyal to and dependent on their local newspaper. These small markets don't have TV stations, alternative weeklies or web-based news sites that pose a threat to the papers. What this leads me to believe is that the dropoff in quality is so pronounced that the locals are refusing to pay for the paper anymore. Towns like Jackson and Clarksville, Tenn., and Zanesville and Port Clinton, Ohio, aren't in the shadow of a big city whose paper provides regional coverage. Those small-town papers should be must-reading for those locals. All it takes is deep and thorough coverage, police blotters, who's suing whom, high school sports, keeping the local pols honest, and a healthy amount of society news. Local advertisers stick with the paper because the paper knows how to pack in the readers. Look around, and you will see this is actually working at small papers not owned by Gannett. Take a look at that Cape May, NJ, paper. Very impressive.
ReplyDeleteYou mean JJC's column didn't cause the Courier New's circulation to jump? Or his so-called leadership in the newsroom? JJC and PG should both be held accountable for the destruction of the Courier News and both shown the door. But both are safe for obvious reasons.
ReplyDeleteThe Courier News and Home News Tribune continue to lose circulation because of one person's decisions and one person's decisions only: PG. He is unable to evaluate talent because he hires people for whom he feels sorry, likes or with whom he has a personal relationship. His professional ethics also are highly questionable. The majority of PG's hires in the past year to 18 months are unable to produce stories worthy of third-grade reading comprehension. He has staff that consistently and repeatedly fail to follow instructions, decide THEY won't do stories if they don't reach people after 2 phone calls and are beyond lazy. Insubordinate doesn't even cut it but if there's any attempt to discipline staff for obvious insubordination and lack of production beyond 2 stories a week, PG cuts it off because he doesn't want to "upset" anyone. He needs to grow a set. There are exactly TWO worthwhile, hard-working reporters in that newsroom and one of them just left. Everyone else on the reporting staff -- and PG -- should be ashamed to take a paycheck.
ReplyDelete