The only US newspaper to show circulation increase
If there is still anyone that doubts there is a crisis in the newspaper publishing industry they must be very well hidden. It seems that as every day passes more bad news emerges. Today, it was the turn of the US Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) to hammer in new coffin nails and paint a picture of massively accelerating decline.
Consider this — across the 379 newspapers in the mix, daily circulation fell by an average 10.6% to 30.39 million copies for the six months to 30 September 2009 compared to 34 million copies in the same period last year. For the sake of comparison, the decline this time round was more than double that in the previous period. I’m not a betting man, but unless there is radical change it is becoming a question of when not if major newspapers go under.
But there is more to this than just the market telling newspapers it is no longer as interested in their products as it once was. Unlike other recessions, this time round responses to the grim economics from publishers is fuelling a vicious cycle of accelerating decline. As readership shrinks and ad revenue fades, publishers are left with little choice other to reduce costs in every way possible. Huge staff cuts means the underlying quality proposition of the title is eroded, while cuts in the numbers of copies distributed free or heavily discounted means the reach of the publication is adversely impacted. Result — circulation falls further and ad revenue declines faster as the ABCs are a key indicator for businesses deciding where to place their advertising spend. Ow. That really hurts.
Only one of the top 25 newspapers was credited with circulation growth. The News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal’s circulation rose 0.6% to 2.02 million.
Top 25 US newspapers by circulation (source: ABC)
| 1 | Wall Street Journal | 2,024,269 | +0.61% |
| 2 | USA Today | 1,900,116 | -17.15% |
| 3 | New York Times | 927,851 | -7.28% |
| 4 | Los Angeles Times | 657,851 | -11.05% |
| 5 | The Washington Post | 582,844 | -6.4% |
| 6 | New York Daily News | 544,167 | -13.98% |
| 7 | New York Post | 508,042 | -18.77% |
| 8 | Chicago Tribune | 465,892 | -9.72% |
| 9 | Houston Chronicle | 384,892 | -9.72% |
| 10 | Philadelphia Inquirer | 361,480 | n/a |
| 11 | Newsday | 357,124 | -5.40% |
| 12 | The Denver Post | 340,949 | -14.24 |
| 13 | The Arizona Republic | 316,874 | -12.30% |
| 14 | Star Tribune, Minneapolis | 304,543 | -5.53% |
| 15 | Chicago Sun-Times | 275,641 | -11.98% |
| 16 | The Plain Dealer, Cleveland | 271,180 | -11.24% |
| 17 | Detroit Free Press | 269,729 | -9.56% |
| 18 | The Boston Globe | 264,105 | -18.48% |
| 19 | The Dallas Morning News | 263,810 | -22.16% |
| 20 | The Seattle Times | 263,588 | n/a |
| 21 | San Francisco Chronicle | 251,782 | -25.82% |
| 22 | The Oregonian | 249,163 | -12.06% |
| 23 | The Star-Ledger, Newark | 246,006 | -22.22% |
| 24 | San Diego Union-Tribune | 242,705 | -10.05% |
| 25 | St Petersberg (Fla) Times | 240,147 | -10.70% |
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