For the six-month period ending March 2006 compared to the same period a year ago, circulation at newspapers in major cities across the country continued to drop. Most notable so far: the San Francisco Chronicle, which experienced a dramatic 15% decline in daily copies, to 398,246.
Daily circulation at the Los Angeles Times dropped about 5.4% to 851,832. Sunday proved better for the paper, down 1.8%. The San Jose Mercury News, which McClatchy intends to buy, also showed decreases in daily circ, down 7.6% to 242,865.
The Washington Post reported that daily circulation slipped 3.6% to 724,242.
On the national front, USA Today reported slight gains -- despite a price increase last fall - up .09% to 2,272,815. Daily circulation at The New York Times was up 0.5% to 1,142,464. The Wall Street Journal was down 1% to 2,049,768 for Monday through Friday.
As expected, daily circulation at The Boston Globe dropped 8.5% to 397,288. The paper experienced declines after releasing subscriber information in February.
In Florida, the Orlando Sentinel also dropped 8.2% to 229,368 daily copies. The Miami Herald was down 5.8% to 294,172.
Monday, May 08, 2006
NEWSPAPERS WITHERING
The nation's largest newspapers, they aren't so large anymore. According to Editor & Publisher:
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6 comments:
Ron,
I haven't seen you cover anything on the TABOR initiative being pushed in Missouri (including Springfield). It's a really important issue that will affect everything. This is the most devastating piece of policy that Missouri has seen in years.
From what I've seen most people, if they have heard about it, dont' really understand it. I posted a simplistic piece on it, but just wondered if you were going to. You get a lot of traffic.
Newspapers are clearly at a crucial point in their history: change or die. While there are those of us who will always want to hold the paper in our hands to read it, we've grown a generation of people who only pay attention to stuff coming at them from a monitor. The newspaper industry faces a real challenge and it will be interesting to see who withers and who succeeds.
Newspapers became overpriced Pennypowers. There was no intelligence and very little news. It is sad in a way, to see that bloggers are the ones reporting local news, not the paper.
It's even sadder to say that if I want to know whats happening in my own country, I have to go to foreign newspapers.
And what happened to the lively columns that were fun to read .. .there are still some, but not many. The bloggers got that area covered too.
HINT: Don't invest in a printing press unless you really have a great new way of doing things, which probably means you won't turn profits of 30%.
In 2001, the Springfield News-Leader listed its paid circulation as 65,127 during the week. In 2002, that official number was 61,173 and in 2005 the circulation was 64,853. Pretty flat for such a growing community, which might explain why they don't always replace reporters who leave.
If my memory serves correctly the New-Leader had a press run of around 70,000 during the late 1970's. This was befor Gannett had a chance to run the quality of the paper into the ground.
Ah, for the good old days of that fire and brimstone reporter Frank Farmer.
Stone,
Wouldn't a 30% profit warrant a "windfall profits" surcharge? ;)
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