Search »

Daily Newspaper Circulation Drops Sharply

According to the The Audit Bureau of Circulations, for the six months ending March 2005, daily newspaper circulation fell 1.9 percent to 47,374,033, Editor & Publisher reports. Sunday’s drop was even steeper, with a decline of 2.5 percent to 51,073,104. The declines would have been larger had Newsday, The Dallas Morning News, and the Chicago Sun-Times - censured by the bureau because of prior circulation inflation - been included.

 

Only three papers with circulations over 500,000 reported increases. Papers with circulations of 25,000 or less faired the best, with 31.1 percent showing an increase. The largest declines were at the L.A. Times, down 6.5 percent daily and 7.9 percent on Sunday, and The Chicago Tribune, down 5.8 percent daily and 4.5 percent Sunday.

The do-not-call list is still cited as one of the culprits dragging down the numbers. The NAA is set to release a new report that shows as of two years ago only 10% of “available numbers” were on the do-not-call list. Now, it’s up to 40%. “Days omitted” changes have also taken a toll. Newspapers could once delete up to 40 days from their report due to bad weather or holidays. The ABC has changed that number to 10.