Newspaper circulation drops in Hub

(Correction: The MetroWest Daily News posted a 12.7 percent decline in Sunday circulation in the latest six-month reporting period, not the 31 percent drop reported in yesterday's Business section. The difference results from a change in the way MetroWest reports circulation to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. When contacted Monday night, MetroWest declined to discuss its circulation figures. Because of a graphic artist's error, a chart accompanying the same story incorrectly listed a 10.2 percent decline in The New York Times Sunday circulation. The circulation of the Sunday Times increased by 0.2 percent.)

Circulation at the nation's daily newspapers declined an average of 2.5 percent in the latest six-month reporting period as readers continued to migrate to the Internet, with losses hitting Boston papers especially hard.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations said the Boston Herald's average weekday circulation dropped 9.1 percent, to 227,583, for the six months ended March 31, compared to the same period a year earlier.

The Boston Globe's weekday circulation slid 8.5 percent, to 397,288.

Boston Herald Sunday circulation fell 18.4 percent to 122,712, while the Globe's Sunday circulation fell 10.2 percent to 604,068.

The only major metropolitan newspaper that fared worse than the Boston papers was the San Francisco Chronicle, which lost 15.6 percent of its weekday circulation.

Alfred S. Larkin Jr., the Globe's executive vice president, said about one-third of the Globe's weekday circulation drop and about half of the Sunday decline were the result of reductions in discounted circulation.

''Not all circulation is created equal," said Lou Ureneck, a journalism professor at Boston University's College of Communication. ''The Globe numbers look worse than they really are."

But other factors also are conspiring to drive down circulation, Larkin said. ''Greater Boston is one of the most wired broadband areas in the country. It is likely the Internet is having a little more impact here than the rest of the country," he said.

The Globe also has said about 5,000 subscriptions were canceled following the inadvertent release of customer credit-card information in January. Printed lists of credit-card information for 240,000 Globe and Worcester Telegram & Gazette subscribers were used as wrappers for bundles of newspapers distributed by the Worcester paper. The Globe and the Telegram & Gazette are owned by The New York Times Co.

Larkin said the cancellations affected only the last two months of the six-month reporting period, and that some of the subscriptions have since been renewed.

In the Boston area, metropolitan papers generally performed worse than their suburban counterparts, reflecting a national trend that explains why interest remains high among investors in small-market media, analysts said.

An exception was the MetroWest Daily News's Sunday circulation, which dropped dramatically, from 43,403 to 29,885, a 31 percent decline.

The Patriot Ledger in Quincy and the Enterprise in Brockton, which will both be purchased by Liberty Group Publishing under a deal disclosed last week, lost 6.3 and 3.5 percent of circulation, respectively.

Liberty Group Publishing specializes in newspapers below 20,000 in circulation, including 64 dailies. It also is buying Community Newspapers Co., the suburban Massachusetts chain of about 100 dailies and weeklies owned by Boston Herald publisher Patrick J. Purcell, for a reported $225 million. Purcell did not return a phone call seeking comment.

''We live in an age of increasingly targeted media, and major metropolitan newspapers by their nature can't be as targeted as a paper that covers a much smaller geographical area," said Colby Atwood, vice president of Borrell Associates Inc., a media research firm in Richmond.

The Newspaper Association of America, an industry group, said yesterday that circulation numbers don't tell the full story: While print circulation is waning, readership at newspaper websites is rapidly rising.

''We've got a great story to tell, in terms of numbers of people who are using newspaper websites for their source of information," said John Kimball, chief marketing officer of the association. ''The number of people coming to the newspaper's brand is not shrinking, it's growing."

But Atwood said the additional advertising dollars generated by online readership are not yet making up for the loss of print revenues. ''It takes anywhere from 50 to 100 readers online to make up for one print reader, in terms of advertising revenue," he said. ''Simply replacing them one-for-one is not going to be a big help."

Intertwined with the movement of readers to newspaper and other websites is the departure of young readers from newspapers in general, despite a variety of efforts by newspapers to cater to their demographic, said John Morton, president of Morton Research Inc., of Silver Spring, Md.

''It used to be decades ago that to get better circulation, you would put out a better newspaper. Now, young people are no more inclined to pick up a good newspaper than a bad one, and that is something that has contributed to a great deal of declines," Morton said.

Christopher Rowland can be reached at crowland@globe.com.