Newspapers – Circulation Down, Online Visitors Up
According to a story in MediaPost, A report just released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations shows an overall circulation decline of 3.6% in the six months ending March 2008, compared to the same period one year ago. This is the steepest drop yet (up from a 3% drop in September), and it’s the ninth straight report where newspaper circs have declined. Since March 2004, total daily circulations have fallen almost 10%, from about 50.8 million to about 46.2 million.
Among big national papers, The New York Times saw daily circulation fall 3.9% to about 1.08 million, as Sunday circulation tumbled 9.3% to about 1.48 million. At the Los Angeles Times, daily circulation fell 5.2% and Sunday 6%. The Washington Post‘s daily circ fell 3.6% and Sunday 4.4%. At the Chicago Tribune, daily and Sunday circ both fell 4.5%. There were a few exceptions to the general gloom: USA Today and The Wall Street Journal both saw circulation creep up slightly, gaining less than 1% each.
On the other hand, the Newspaper Association of America reports that the number of unique visitors at its member’s websites increased by 12.3% in the first three months of the year. Follow this link to the full story.