Posted on 04/27/2010 2:33:16 AM PDT by Zakeet
The Chronicle said Monday that remaking its business model by charging more for the newspaper has, as expected, produced a sharp drop in circulation even as it has improved the paper's bottom line.
For the six months ending in March, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported Monday that The Chronicle's daily circulation declined 22.7 percent, from 312,118 to 241,330, the largest decline among the nation's top 25 newspapers.
Weekday circulation nationwide went down 8.7 percent, and 6.5 percent on Sundays.
[Snip]
The top U.S. newspapers by average weekday and Sunday circulation from October 2009 through March. The percentage changes are from the same six-month span last year.
The Chronicle is No. 24, with a weekday circulation of 241,330 (down 22.7 percent); and a Sunday circulation of 286,121 (down 19.3 percent).
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Impeccable Publisher Logic: Our circulation is dropping even though we have seen a net increase in the number of new subscribers (whatever the hell that means); our revenues are dropping, even as this has improved our papers' bottom line (however the hell that can happen); and this is all good because it means we are going out of business at slower rate.
So far the only numbers I have seen on the web are those from the top 25 newspapers. If you run across the numbers from the rest of the country, ping me. I’m very interested in how the local Gannetoids are faring.
There are several observations here. First, if you were a journalist with any of these papers...watching them spiral downward...you’d be awful worried about your future and your pay situation (don’t anticipate pay raises). So staying on a left-wing slant...eventually would eventually determine your life’s ambitions as being doomed.
Second...for you the owner of such a newspaper in a spiral...with this open data being published and all your townspeople and friends aware of the stat’s....you have a continual barrage of people asking how you will improve. Dumping your slanted news is probably not an option...so you keep talking about this big-time reporter you are bringing to town....to pump up enthusiasm.
Third and final...the numbers are played around with people who place advertising. They can walk in and suggest a 10 percent discount because of lousy reader numbers. They will likely get that.
Now a personal slant to this deal. I went back to my old hometown over the weekend. My dad still subscribes to the local paper. So I’m sitting there on a Sunday morning and reading this paper. It used to take me around thirty minutes to read the Sunday paper...this time, it took eight minutes. They’ve downsized drastically and eighty percent of the Sunday paper was packaged from the mother organization. There was barely one page of anything local and it was obvious that they were cutting back.
You would think they would get the point with only the post and WSJ doing well.
They can’t see past their bias.
I would like to take the paper for coupons, but I refuse to put one cent in the St Peterberg Times. Even my eight year old noticed the bias from the pictures!
I think a lot of USA Today’s circulation comes from the free copies hotels slide under your door. Mine always goes, unread, straight to the garbage.
>> if you were a journalist with any of these papers...watching them spiral downward...you’d be awful worried about your future and your pay situation (don’t anticipate pay raises)
Or, you-the-journalist could just remain one of that stubborn 27% who “strongly approve” of Barack Obama, and *hope* that he finds a way to pay you out of his bottomless “stash”...
Grampa Dave says whenever he travels he always insists that the hotel deduct the $0.50 from his bill they tack on for USAT. Sometimes they fuzz up about doing it, but he insists.
He says the personal satisfaction he gets from making his point has many times the value of the $0.50.
Give the Tampa Tribune a try for Sunday Coupons. Their Sunday paper costs 50 cents (cheaper than daily). I buy 2, only for the coupons, scan the rest and save the rest to use as a weed block in my flower garden.
I was thrifty and “green” when it wasnt cool.
No luck with that, either. But I did come across the circulation numbers for the top 100 rags from just four years ago.
Consider the following:
Such is the miracle of compounding and discounting.
Also note how many of the old titles have folded, and how many have undergone (or are presently undergoing) bankruptcy proceedings.
Very interesting read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/business/media/27paper.html?ref=business
Judge Says 3 Can Bid at Newspaper Auction
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/business/media/27audit.html?ref=business
Newspaper Circulation Falls Nearly 9%
Wow, if this qualifies for 24th the print media is really in trouble.
has nothing to do with bias and hostility towards average Americans...nope it’s that damn internet
HMMMM lets see selling less papers, lets see, I know lets raise the price that will do it.
Look at the up side. Fewer papers sold means less printing stock and ink to buy!
Why worry? The Puffery/Earnings Ratio is doing great!
“HMMMM lets see selling less papers, lets see, I know lets raise the price that will do it.” You were joking but that’s EXACTLY what they are doing.
It’s got to be better than the SPT. I really abhor that sheet.
A friend once told me, I listen to what they say and take the opposite view. They can be reliable to take the wrong view 100% of the time.
If they run out of things to print, they’ll write some headline on how we need more taxes. Today their headline is on the “Gulf Oil Spill Threatening FL”.
Soon, these rags will be down to a single subscriber; the U.S. taxpayer. I’m betting the papers go the GM bailout route. It will be touted as “The Preservation of the First Amendment Bill”, or some other similar malarkey.
What the data doesn’t tell us is how many subscriptions are free. For example, isn’t USA Today given free (or dramatically discounted) to many hotels/motels?
On a different point, I recall when the NY Slimes and the WSJ were neck and neck in terms of circulation. The WSJ is pretty expensive, but their circulation is now more than twice that of the Slimes.
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