Newspaper circulation continues decline

Recent figures from ABC show 7% decline in circulation at top 395 newspapers

Remember sipping on a cup of coffee and reading an actual newspaper in its physical form on a Sunday morning?  These days of the past are quickly fading away as we shift from buying an actual paper, to reading the news on our laptops and cellphones connected to the web.

Last week I received an email from the SF Chronicle, offering me a new and green e-edition of its newspaper, I thought SFGate was already its online version which is free, anyways.  With this subscription I’d receive 52 weeks of 7-day digital delivery for $99 per year of an exact digital replica of the newspaper.  This offer, obviously a desperate attempt to deal with these changing times.  Thanks, but no thanks.

Today, the Audit Bureau of Circulations released some figures showing further evidence of newspaper circulation continuing to decline. Circulation at the top 395 newspapers, dropped 7% in the two quarters ending March.

- Here’s some more detailed figures I was able to find from a write-up by Editor and Publisher -

According to ABC, for 395 newspapers reporting this spring, daily circulation fell 7% to 34,439,713 copies, compared with the same March period in 2008. On Sunday, for 557 newspapers, circulation was down 5.3% to 42,082,707. These averages do not include 84 newspapers with circulations below 50,000 due to a change in publishing frequency.

The percent comparisons are for the same period ending in March 2008. (All daily averages are for Monday through Friday.)

Daily circulation at The New York Times dropped 3.5% to 1,039,031. The Times' Sunday circ was down 1.7% to 1,451,233.

The Washington Post lost 1.6% of its daily circ to 665,383 and 2.3% to 868,965.

USA Today, as reported earlier this month, lost 7.4% of its daily circulation to 2,113,725 due to a decline in hotel copies.

Daily circulation at The Wall Street Journal was up a fraction 0.6% to 2,082,189, but this was certainly the exception, not the rule.

Daily circulation at The Boston Globe skidded 13.6% to 302,638 copies. Sunday decreased 11.2% to 466,665.

New York's Daily News was off 14%, but rival New York Post lost even more, at minus 20%. The Star-Ledger of Newark shed over 16%. Newsday, by comparison, lost 3%*.

Daily circulation at The Miami Herald fell 15.8% to 202,122. Sunday is down 13.1% to 270,166.

San Francisco Chronicle shed 15.7% of daily copies to 312,118. Sunday fell 16.5% to 312,118.

Tribune Co. papers rolled out highly touted redesigns in this period, but lost readers. The Chicago Tribune lost 7.4% of its daily circulation to 501,202 and 4.5% on Sunday to 858,256 copies. Circulation plunged at the Los Angeles Times at 6.5% of its daily circulation (Monday through Friday) to 723,181 copies. Sunday was down 7.4% to 1,019,388.

The Philadelphia Inquirer lost 13.7% of its daily circulation to 288,298. Sunday was hit just as hard, down 12% to 550,400. Daily circulation at its sister publication the Daily News fell 7.6% to 99,103.

Daily circulation at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution plummeted almost 20% to 261,828. Sunday decreased 7% to 462,011.

The Star Tribune in Minneapolis and the Chicago Sun-Times took very slim losses -- a victory of sorts.

The Houston Chronicle was down almost 14% of daily circulation to 425,138. Sunday fell 7.8% to 583,364 copies.

The Arizona Republic in Phoenix was down 5.7% in daily circulation to 389,701 while the paper gained 0.2% on Sunday with a total of 516,562 copies.

The Plain Dealer in Cleveland lost 11.7% of its average daily circulation to 291,630. Sunday was down 8.15 to 393,352.