Newspaper circulation down 10.6 percent

Associated Press

The decline in US newspaper circulation is accelerating as the industry struggles with defections to the Internet and tumbling ad revenue.

Figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that average daily circulation dropped 10.6 percent in the April-September period from the same six-month span in 2008. That was greater than the 7.1 percent decline in the October 2008-March 2009 period and the 4.6 percent drop in the April-September period of 2008.

Sunday circulation fell 7.5 percent in the latest six-month span.

As expected, the Wall Street Journal has surpassed USA Today as the top-selling newspaper in the United States. Although the Journal's average Monday-Friday circulation largely remained unchanged at 2.02 million, USA Today saw its worst circulation decline ever, dropping more than 17 percent to 1.90 million. The newspaper has blamed reductions in travel for much of the circulation shortfall, because many of its single-copy sales come in airports and hotels.

The New York Times stayed in third place at 927,851, down 7.3 percent from the same period of 2008.

(At The Boston Globe, which is owned by The New York Times Co., daily circulation decreased 18.4 percent to 264,105 while Sunday circulation fell 16.9 percent to 418,529. Shortly after the reporting period began, the Globe began implementing price increases. While increases varied by geography, the average increase to Globe subscribers was 40 percent, a Globe spokesman said.

Daily circulation for the Boston Herald was 138,260 at the end of the reporting period, down 17.5 percent from a year ago. A Herald spokeswoman said the Herald had four price increases during the latest reporting period.)

Newspaper sales have been declining since the early 1990s, but the drop has accelerated in recent years. Part of this is because newspapers stopped serving harder-to-reach areas and limited circulation to their core regions.

In many cases, people simply aren't buying print copies as much as they used to, given the abundance of free news on the Internet, often from the newspapers themselves. This has prompted newspapers to consider charging fees for Web access, but it could prove difficult to persuade people to pay for something they are used to getting for free.

Newsday, a Long Island daily, said last week it plans to start charging people who don't subscribe to its print edition $5 a week for access to its Web site. Newsday's circulation dropped 5.4 percent in the latest reporting period, to 357,124.

The figures from the circulation bureau compare 379 newspapers that had reported daily average sales for both the current and year-ago periods. The Sunday figure, meanwhile, compares 562 newspapers.

The closures of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and other printed newspapers aren't reflected in the total decline. (And in many cases, subscriptions were transferred to each city's other major newspaper). The total also excludes many smaller newspapers because of rule changes that make direct comparisons impossible.