US Newspaper Business Sees Declining Circulation

Circulation at US newspapers has been on a downward slope since 1987, and in the last six months, that trend has continued. The Audit Bureau of Circulations says circulation at the country's newspapers is off about 2.8% from this time last year. In part, this reflects a growing belief that the future of these organizations is online. In addition, some newspapers are dumping lower-value circulation. Finally, there's the effect of the National Do Not Call list, which has prevented telemarketing of newspapers. There is little on the horizon to suggest that this trend will reverse itself.

The statistics make for grim reading. In the last six months, The Washington Post's daily circulation is down 3.3% and 2.6% off its Sunday circulation. The not-as-good The New York Times daily and Sunday circulation is 3.5% lower. USA Today, the nation's largest newspaper (what a sad commentary), lost 1.3% of its circulation and doesn't appear on Sunday. The biggest drop of all was at The Miami Herald, down 9% daily and on Sunday.

Particularly hard hit are the Tribune-owned papers. Its Los Angeles Times, which makes up 25% or so of the company's income dropped 8%. The ABC says its daily circulation is 775,766, with 1.2 million on Sunday, off 6%. Daily circulation at sentimental flagship paper The Chicago Tribune fell 1.7%; The Hartford Courant was off 3.9%; the under-rated Baltimore Sun was down 4.4%, and Long Island's Newsday was down 4.9%. There was some good news. In New York, the unreadable New York Post and the slightly more popular and certainly more responsible Daily News have been having a tabloid war. Unlike the war in Iraq-nam, tabloid wars are good for business. The Mr. Murdoch's Post gained 5% over last year's circulation, and the Daily News is up 1%.

Of course, when circulation falls, ad rates drop, and there isn't a paper in the country that could survive on what the public pays out of its own pocket. The New York Times has a motto of "all the news that's fit to print," but in truth every paper prints the news that fits around the ad space sold. Indeed, outside some train stations in Manhattan, free newspapers are handed out, paid for by ad revenues, and they are merely following the Contra Costa Times that launched as a free daily in Walnut Creek, California, in 1947.

TV already killed off the afternoon papers by 1980; after all, why read a paper printed at noon, when one can watch the 6 o'clock news that is minutes old? The new media, websites, podcasts and the rest have undermined the newspaper business even further. Why read the local paper when a broadband connection can provide that, along with the BBC, CNN, Sports Illustated.com, Fortune Magazine on line, and all the gossip anyone could want? Like record companies, the newspaper business has focused wrongly on believing the medium was the product. They are suffering for it now. They aren't in the paper business. They are in the news business. Selling the news, not wood pulp with ink on it, is how they will survive and even flourish.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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