Monday, October 27, 2008

Post-News circ declines bigtime for millionth straight reporting period

Editor & Publisher:
Daily circ [if they get to say "circ," I get to say "circ"] at the Denver Post dropped 6.5% to 210,585 and at the Rocky Mountain News it was down 6.6% to 210,281. The combined Sunday circulation for the JOA papers declined 9.1% to 545,442.
Ouch. On top of ouch. On top of ouch. On top of just kill me. Now. At least they're not lonely down there:
The San Francisco Chronicle lost 7% of its daily circulation to 339,430 copies while Sunday was down a hair more, 7.4% to 398,116. The San Jose Mercury News was down slightly, 1.9% to 224,199 and Sunday was down much more, 4.3% to 241,518.

On the East Coast, daily circulation at The Boston Globe plummeted 10.1% to 323,983 copies. Sunday circ was down 8.4% to 503,659. The Baltimore Sun’s daily circ declined 5.9% to 218,923 while Sunday fell 3.8% to 350,640.

Daily circulation at The Philadelphia Inquirer slipped 11.0% to 300,674 copies. Sunday plunged 13.7% to 556,426. At the Daily News in Philly, daily circ slipped 13.2% to 97,694. . . .
The piece has lots more figgers, almost all bad. Interestingly (I claim) another story at Poynter Online quotes an expert of some sort (always lots of experts hanging around Poyndexter, er, Poynter) on why newspapers are in such a sorry state:
Trusted bylines have disappeared overnight. Readers notice, and talk to their friends, and they're saying: it's not the newspaper it used to be. When the subscription notices come, they're a little less likely to be acted upon.
He mentions several other factors, but of course never the biggie. I'll whisper it.

No, I can't.

(via, again, Poynter Online)

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