Newspaper Circulation Continues to Plummet

It will be interesting to see how the big newpapers spin this, but it appears to be an industry-wide calamity. Even the right-of-center New York Post, which has been gaining while others slipped, experienced a decline.

Clearly online availability, the fact people don't have as much time to devote to reading an entire newspaper, and a lack of readership among the younger demographics is taking a toll on the industry.

Relentless leftwing bias is also a factor, I would surmise.

Many Top Papers Take Big Hits

The Audit Bureau of Circulations released circulation numbers for more than 700 daily newspapers this morning for the six-month period ending September 2007. Of the top 25 papers in daily circulation (see chart, separate story), only four showed gains.

For The New York Times, daily circulation fell 4.51% to 1,037,828 and Sunday plunged 7.59% to 1,500,394, at least partly due to a price increase.

Daily circulation at The Washington Post was down 3.2% to 635,087 and Sunday was down 3.9% to 894,428.

Daily circulation at The Boston Globe tumbled 6.6% to 360,695 and Sunday fell about the same, 6.5% to 548,906.

The Wall Street Journal was down 1.53% to 2,011,882 daily but USA Today posted a gain of 1% to 2,293,137.

The New York Post slipped this period with daily circ down 5.2% to 667,119 and Sunday fell 5% to 405,486. The New York Daily News also showed declines in daily circ down 1.7% to 681,415 while Sunday decreased 6.8% to 726,305.

Chicago Tribune - daily circulation slipped 2.9% to 559,404 and Sunday fell 2% to 917,868.

It's sister publication, the Los Angeles Times grew slightly up 0.5% to 779,682 while Sunday fell 5.1% to 1,112,165.

Daily and Sunday circulation at the San Francisco Chronicle has stabilized, down 2.9% to 365,234 and 0.6% to 430,115, respectively.

Both The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News experienced deep declines -- over 10%.

The Philadelphia Inquirer slipped on Sunday but gained 2.3% daily.

As expected, circulation -- at least paid circulation -- continues to decline sharply. For the past several years, publishers, particularly those at major metros, have been whittling back on circulation considered to be less useful by advertisers. Those papers fall into the category of other paid, which includes hotel, Newspapers in Education, employee, and third party copies.

The Dallas Morning News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and San Diego Union-Tribune in particular suffered steep declines, all down by at least 7.6%.

Maybe they can save some money by shedding some of those layers of editors who consistently fail to properly do their job.