Newspapers' Paid Circulation Losses Shrink

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Newspapers' circulation losses have stopped growing, but the industry still has a ways to go before it finds a new equilibrium.

Newspapers' average daily paid circulation over the six months ending in March declined just 8.7% from the equivalent six-month period a year earlier, the Audit Bureau of Circulations said today as it issued its biannual circulation report, factoring in just the 602 papers reporting comparable figures for both periods and excluding papers that, for example, shut down in the interim.

That's an improvement over the prior report, which showed a 10.6% daily drop for the six months ending in September 2009, the culmination of growing losses in the periods before: a 7.1% decline for the period ending March 2009, a 4.6% slide for the period ending September 2008 and a 3.6% slip for the period ending March 2008.

Newspapers' Sunday paid circulation fell 6.5% in the new report, compared with a 7.5% drop for the period ending last September and declines of 5.4% for the period ending March 2009, 4.9% for the period ending September 2008 and 4.6% for the period ending March 2008.

The new figures come amid a new period of foment in the newspaper business. In New York, for one, The Wall Street Journal today introduced a local edition with a standalone Greater New York Section -- a bid to grab readers and advertisers from The New York Times. The Washington Post is facing a new challenge in the form of a site called TBD.com from the founders of Politico, which will deploy 20 reporters to cover Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas. And of course a small but growing number of papers are charging for unfettered access to their websites, an effort to wring circulation revenue from digital media and shore up print circulation.

Other measures
Despite the moderation in paid circulation losses, the newspaper industry trade group quickly sought to shift the emphasis to other measures, such as the audience of people who read a newspaper in print, whether they paid for it or not, or newspapers' growing audience online.

"Recent data from Scarborough Research provides a broader -- and more complete -- perspective: Nearly 100 million adults continue to read a print newspaper every day and 168 million adults read a newspaper in print or online in the past week," said John F. Sturm, president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America, in a statement following the Audit Bureau's report. "In addition, the latest Nielsen Online data found that newspaper websites attracted a record 74.4 million unique visitors per month on average in the first quarter of 2010 -- more than one third, 37%, of all internet users."

Of course newspapers continue to derive the vast majority of their profitable revenue from advertising in their print editions, which is priced and negotiated based on paid circulation levels. And newspapers long boasted that its paying customers showed more commitment than, say, radio listeners who don't pay, much less subscribe.

Newspapers have, on the other hand, gotten smarter about managing their paid circulations -- sometimes abandoning areas outside their core markets, for example, where advertisers were less interested in appearing and distribution costs were greater. Some have increased newsstand and subscription prices, too, in an effort to improve circulation economics. Those factors combine to depress paid circulations.

Losses at the biggest papers
Among the top 25 weekday papers, The Wall Street Journal eked out a 0.5% increase in the latest period, while USA Today, the second largest, saw daily circulation plunge 13.6% and The New York Times, the third largest, reported an 8.5% decline. None of the top 25 showed an increase but The Journal.

Among the top 25 Sunday papers, The Times experienced a 5.2% decline in the latest period, the Los Angeles Times reported a 7.6% drop and The Washington Post saw a 8.2% fall. Only the St. Petersburg Times reported an increase, notching a 0.9% gain.

			Total Paid Circulation
State	Newspaper Name	Frequency	As of 3/31/10	As of 3/31/09	% Change
NY	WALL STREET JOURNAL	AVG M (M-F)	2,092,523	2,082,189	0.50%
DC	USA TODAY	AVG M (M-F)	1,826,622	2,113,725	-13.58%
NY	NEW YORK TIMES	AVG M (M-F)	951,063	1,039,032	-8.47%
CA	LOS ANGELES TIMES	AVG M (M-F)	616,606	723,181	-14.74%
DC	WASHINGTON POST	AVG M (M-F)	578,482	665,383	-13.06%
NY	NEW YORK DAILY NEWS	AVG M (M-F)	535,059	602,859	-11.25%
NY	NEW YORK POST	AVG M (M-F)	525,004	558,140	-5.94%
CA	SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS (a)	AVG M (M-F) (1/1/10 to 3/31/10)	516,701	N/A	N/A
IL	CHICAGO TRIBUNE	AVG M (M-F)	452,145	501,202	-9.79%
TX	HOUSTON CHRONICLE	AVG M (M-F)	366,578	425,138	-13.77%
PA	PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER (a)	AVG M (M-F)	356,189	N/A	N/A
AZ	ARIZONA REPUBLIC	AVG M (M-F)	351,207	389,701	-9.88%
NY	NEWSDAY	AVG M (M-F)	334,809	368,195	-9.07%
CO	DENVER POST (a)	AVG M (M-F)	333,675	N/A	N/A
MN	STAR TRIBUNE	AVG M (M-F)	295,438	320,119	-7.71%
FL	ST. PETERSBURG TIMES	AVG M (M-F)	278,888	283,093	-1.49%
IL	CHICAGO SUN-TIMES	AVG M (M-F)	268,803	312,141	-13.88%
OH	CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER	AVG M (M-F)	267,888	291,630	-8.14%
OR	OREGONIAN	AVG M (M-F)	263,600	268,512	-1.83%
WA	SEATTLE TIMES (a)	AVG M (M-F)	263,468	N/A	N/A
TX	DALLAS MORNING NEWS	AVG M (M-F)	260,659	331,907	-21.47%
MI	DETROIT FREE PRESS (e)	AVG M (M-F)	252,017	290,723	-13.31%
CA	SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE	AVG M (M-F)	249,630	261,253	-4.45%
CA	SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE	AVG M (M-F)	241,330	312,118	-22.68%
NJ	NEWARK STAR-LEDGER	AVG M (M-F)	236,017	287,082	-17.79%
Blue indicates audited figures (a) Denotes change in publishing plan; year-over-year data not comparable (e) Five-day average reflects a reduced home-delivery schedule Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations

			Total Paid Circulation
State	Newspaper Name	Frequency	As of 3/31/10	As of 3/31/09	% Change
NY	NEW YORK TIMES	SUN	1,376,230	1,451,234	-5.17%
CA	LOS ANGELES TIMES	SUN	941,914	1,019,386	-7.60%
DC	WASHINGTON POST	SUN	797,679	868,965	-8.20%
IL	CHICAGO TRIBUNE	SUN	794,350	858,256	-7.45%
NY	NEW YORK DAILY NEWS	SUN	600,118	644,767	-6.92%
CA	SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS (a)	SUN (1/01/10 to 03/31/10)	549,024	N/A	N/A
TX	HOUSTON CHRONICLE (T)	SUN	526,440	583,364	-9.76%
PA	PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER	SUN	517,807	550,401	-5.92%
MI	DETROIT FREE PRESS (T)	SUN	511,742	582,418	-12.13%
AZ	ARIZONA REPUBLIC	SUN	510,500	516,562	-1.17%
MN	MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE	SUN	493,027	497,679	-0.93%
CO	DENVER POST (a)	SUN	486,976	N/A	N/A
FL	ST. PETERSBURG TIMES	SUN	417,807	413,929	0.94%
MO	ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH	SUN	400,042	415,814	-3.79%
GA	ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION	SUN	397,926	462,457	-13.95%
NY	NEWSDAY	SUN	394,909	426,510	-7.41%
MA	BOSTON GLOBE	SUN	378,949	466,661	-18.80%
TX	DALLAS MORNING NEWS (T)	SUN	373,031	474,923	-21.45%
NJ	NEWARK STAR-LEDGER	SUN	359,865	404,903	-11.12%
WA	SEATTLE TIMES	SUN	356,944	376,515	-5.20%
MD	BALTIMORE SUN	SUN	344,118	351,243	-2.03%
NY	NEW YORK POST	SUN	333,958	357,168	-6.50%
WI	MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL	SUN	328,247	361,355	-9.16%
OR	OREGONIAN	SUN	315,515	325,815	-3.16%
MO	KANSAS CITY STAR	SUN	314,449	333,006	-5.57%
Blue indicates audited figures (T) Includes other audited circulation (a) Denotes change in publishing plan; year-over-year data not comparable Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations

			Total Paid Circulation
State	Newspaper Name	Frequency	As of 3/31/10	As of 3/31/09	% Change
FL	NAPLES DAILY NEWS	AVG M (M-F)	77,565	63,702	21.76%
NY	SCHENECTADY GAZETTE	AVG M (M-F)	55,318	45,490	21.60%
MI	MOUNT CLEMENS MACOMB DAILY	AVG M (M-F)	54,240	47,820	13.43%
NY	WOMEN'S WEAR DAILY	AVG M (M-F)	55,707	50,805	9.65%
PA	YORK DAILY RECORD	AVG M (M-F)	55,901	52,330	6.82%
OH	TOLEDO BLADE	AVG M (M-F)	117,704	110,728	6.30%
IL	BELLEVILLE NEWS- DEMOCRAT	AVG M (M-F)	53,053	49,985	6.14%
PA	ALLENTOWN MORNING CALL	AVG M (M-F)	103,845	99,114	4.77%
TN	CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS	AVG M (M-F)	76,526	73,066	4.74%
CA	SAN BERNARDINO SUN	AVG M (M-F)	51,954	49,949	4.01%
Blue indicates audited figures Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations