November 5, 2007

Newspaper circulation: Choose your synonym

UPDATE: The JT saw a slight dip in its circulation to 30,471 on Sunday and 28,287 weekdays, according to the Milwaukee Business Journal. The Kenosha News declined 1.6 percent on Sundays to 27,149 and 0.9 percent weekdays to 24,552, the paper reported.

ORIGINAL POST: The auditing body of the American newspaper industry issued its circulation report for the past six months today, and it's an exercise in synonyms for bad news. The first report, from Editor and Publisher, the industry trade publication reveals:
Fell: New York Times, -4.5%
Down: Washington Post, -3.2%
Tumbled: Boston Globe, -6.6%
Down: Wall Street Journal, -1.5%
Slipped: New York Post, -5.2%
Experienced deep declines: Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, -10%
Dropped: Minneapolis Star Tribune, -6.5%
There are a few papers with signs of life, mostly reported as "stabilizing" or "minimal" losses or "virtually flat."

Current numbers for the Journal Times haven't been released yet. In April, the last six-month figures available, ABC listed its average daily circulation, M-F, as 28,586 (26,453 on Saturday), with 30,807 papers sold on Sundays.

Both major papers in the region suffered declines: The daily Chicago Tribune "slipped" -2.9% daily to 559,404, and Sunday -2.1% to 917,868. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which only makes the top 25 on Sunday, "fell" -2.6% to 389,840.

The flagship paper of Lee Enterprises, owner of the JT, is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, bought 2 1/2 years ago as part of a $1.46 billion deal. It's down -4.7% daily, to 265,111, but up Sunday by +.04% to 420,222.

1 comment:

  1. My guess is that the J-T is down 5% if not more. The only incress is there on line bloging. But the Click rate for ads is very low.

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