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The nine people convicted in the Newsday circulation scandal were each sentenced Friday to 5 years' probation and up to $125,000 in fines, escaping potential restitution totaling $5.9 million and up to 20 years in prison. Those sentenced - in what federal prosecutors said was the end of their investigation - included Louis Sito, a former top Newsday executive who ran the newspaper's day-to-day business operations, and Robert Brennan, former vice president of circulation. Sito also served as vice president of Hispanic media at Tribune Co., which owned Newsday and the Spanish language Hoy, also implicated in the scandal. The...

NY Times Tale of the Investigative Tape: John Edwards: Ten months Sarah Palin: Five days The Grey Journalistic Bag LadyIt all boils down to what you're interested in investigating. ITEM: It took the New York Times ten months to muster the willpower to look into the John Edwards affair, scandal and ongoing cover-up. It took the Grey Shady only five days to swing into action on Sarah Palin. ITEM: Today, it was also reported that the NY Times lost another 30,000+ subscribers. Are the two items related? The Times' investigative sleuths better go back to Dirt Digging 101: the dirt...

The always-interesting results of the biennial news consumption survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press were released Sunday afternoon. Findings on TV news and online-only news produced a few surprises (follow to come), but on the newspaper front the indications were mainly negative, especially on the print front, but also in some aspects of newspapers on the Web. Namely: while more young people are indeed reading newspapers online, their total readership, print and Web combined, has not grown in two years. This survey was conducted by telephone from April 30 to June 1 among 3,612...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution plans to cut its distribution area from 74 to 49 counties, a move that will eliminate 62 jobs. The cutback will pare circulation by about 2.2 percent daily and 1.9 percent Sunday, the company said Wednesday. The change takes effect June 2 and marks the second time in a little over a year that the AJC has trimmed its print distribution area to cut costs. Counties affected in the latest round are mainly in the northwest corner of the state, along the South Carolina border and northeast of the Columbus area. After the cuts, the AJC will...

NEW YORK Print circulation continues on its steep downward slide, the Audit Bureau of Circulations revealed this morning in releasing the latest numbers for some of the country's largest dailies for the six-month period ending March 31, 2008. When a full analysis appears it is expected to find, according to sources, the biggest dip yet, about 3.5% daily and 4.5 for Sunday. The following circulation compares the new data to the same period a year ago. Daily circulation is the Monday-Friday average. --The New York Times lost more than 150,000 copies on Sunday. Circulation on that day fell a whopping...

Chain letters reveal surprising circulation patterns By Lisa Zyga A chain letter hoax that fooled thousands of people may help computer scientists understand how information spreads on a global scale. The chain e-mail originated sometime in 2002, and claimed to be a petition to organize opposition to the impending US-Iraq war. Tens of thousands of people signed their names to several hundred copies of the petition, with some copies appearing on Web archives. Like most Internet chain letters, the petition had its origins in a hoax, but its widespread dissemination is one of the few instances of a single piece...

In just four years the top newspapers in the U.S. have collectively lost about 1.4 million copies in daily circulation, E&P has found. But since the reported numbers come out every six months, the overall decline for individual papers may not hit home for many. Each fall off is usually in the low- to mid-single digits -- but it sure adds up. While the industry has lost about 10% of circulation overall in the ps four years among the leading papers, some have bled much more than others during the same period, according to an E&P analysis of data from...

More than 40 regional car dealers who in 2004 sued Newsday on fraud and antitrust charges tied to the newspaper's circulation improprieties settled the class-action case this week, a lawyer for the dealers said Wednesday. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Leonard Bellavia, a Bay Shore attorney who filed the case on behalf of the dealers, said settlement talks accelerated in recent weeks. He said he believes the movement was prompted by his firm's offer of experts to help a federal judge determine the financial impact of the Newsday circulation fraud in criminal cases against former executives. Bellavia declined...

Has An Ocean Circulation Collapse Been Triggered?Geoscientists warn that there can be a considerable delay between the triggering of a collapse of the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and the actual collapse. (Credit: iStockphoto/Emmanuelle Combaud) ScienceDaily (Feb. 25, 2008) — Predictions that the 21st century is safe from major circulation changes in the North Atlantic Ocean may not be as comforting as they seem, according to a Penn State researcher. "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it is very unlikely that the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) will collapse in the 21st century. They predict a probability...

Tribune Co. will pay $15 million to the federal government to settle charges that its Long Island, N.Y., newspaper Newsday and New York Spanish-language paper Hoy misstated circulation in 2004. Tribune, which owns Newsday and Hoy, also will set aside $90 million for restitution payments to affected advertisers. Newsday Chief Executive Timothy P. Knight said, "When these issues came to light in 2004, Tribune, Newsday and Hoy took full responsibility and swift action. Over the past few years, we have made comprehensive changes in controls, systems, customer relations, policies and our management team to prevent this from occurring again." After...

Sun-Times Planning Job Cuts As Budget Tightens Could Latest Round Of Cutbacks Lead To End Of Newspaper? CHICAGO (CBS) ― Morale among employees at the Chicago Sun-Times is taking another slip. Company e-mails on Friday notified workers of drastic budget cuts that will lead to lost jobs. As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, the Sun-Times was devastated by owners David Radler, sentenced Monday to two years in jail; and Conrad Black, who last week got six years for stealing millions. Some say the tailspin the paper is taking could be fatal. "One person I know in the newsroom...

The Houston Chronicle is now the sixth-largest metropolitan newspaper in the nation on Sundays — up from seventh — and remains at seventh-place weekdays, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported Monday. Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney said the Chronicle was outperforming most major markets in the country. "We virtually held steady in daily circulation and showed a gain on Sunday," Sweeney said. Sunday circulation ticked up .09 percent, from 692,593 to 693,228. Daily circulation dipped .13 percent, from 508,091 to 507,437. "We want more of our readers engaged in the paper seven days a week, so we've worked hard...

There's nothing like a good dose of schadenfreude to make one's morning. From Editor & Publisher: NEW YORK The Audit Bureau of Circulations released circulation numbers for more than 700 daily newspapers this morning for the six-month period ending September 2007. Of the top 25 papers in daily circulation (see chart, separate story), only four showed gains.According to an analysis of ABC figures, for 538 daily U.S. newspapers, circulation declined 2.5% to 40,689,617. For 609 papers that filed on Sunday, overall circulation dropped 3.5% to 46,771,486. The percentages are based on comparisons from the same period a year ago.For The...

NEW YORK Newspaper executives have complained for years that the yardstick used to measure audience -- paid print circulation -- was unfair especially when compared to the likes of television and radio. Those media have always touted audience share to advertisers so why shouldn't newspapers? Finally after years of debate, the industry is moving towards tracking its total audience which encompasses all its products (especially online viewership) -- not just how many people plunk down some coins for the newspaper. The change will be reflected next Monday, when the Audit Bureau of Circulations releases numbers for more than 700 daily...

Starting July 30, the Savannah Morning News will reduce the size of its circulation area, discontinuing home delivery along with store and rack deliveries to 17 outlying counties and portions of three others. Under the plan, 95 percent of the newspaper's circulation will be within a 60-mile radius of Savannah. Market conditions, rising fuel prices, additional taxes, postal rate increases and advertiser pressures have combined to affect newspaper distribution costs and have forced the Savannah Morning News, like many other newspapers, to reconsider its delivery processes. "These have been long-term customers whom we are no longer going to be able...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Blood pressure drugs beta-blockers can help keep arteries from clogging up, researchers said on Monday in a report that helps explain how the drugs prevent heart attack and sudden heart death.he drugs are cheap and most are generically available, although studies show they are not prescribed as often as recommended.Dr. Steven Nissen and colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio pooled the results of four trials involving 1,500 patients to see if beta-blockers help slow the clogging of arteries.They said 1,100 of the patients took beta-blockers. Most of the patients also got a cocktail of heart drugs...

Today, a Times internal memo outlined some of the changes taking place this August, when newspaper will be 1.5 inches narrower. See below for more on that reduced news hole in the near future. No worries though, since there's plenty of space in the brand new City Room. To: Newsroom From: John MacLeod, Terry Schwadron Subject: Narrowing the size of the newspaper page The editions of The Times for Monday, Aug. 6 will be the first with new, narrower page dimensions. The printed page will be the same depth, but an inch and a half narrower. To account for the...

(AP) -- Average paid weekday circulation of the nation's 20 largest newspapers for the six-month period ending in March, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period. 1. USA Today, 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent 2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent 3. The New York Times, 1,120,420, down 1.9 percent 4. Los Angeles Times, 815,723, down 4.2 percent 5. New York Post, 724,748, up 7.6 percent 6. New York Daily News, 718,174, up 1.4 percent 7. The Washington Post, 699,130, down 3.5 percent 8. Chicago Tribune, 566,827, down...

NEW YORK Blame the big metro papers -- again. The Audit Bureau of Circulations released the spring numbers this morning, revealing more plunges in daily and Sunday circulation. As in the past, the losses are steep while gains are minimal. This is the fifth consecutive reporting period that overall newspaper circulation experienced big drops, despite easing comparisons. For all papers reporting daily circulation, the number is estimated to have fallen 2.5%, while Sunday is forecasted to have tumbled 3%. All daily averages reported are for Monday through Friday. The three large national papers made some strides in increases. However, The...

April 18, 2007 -- The Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest daily paper, is the latest publication in the metropolitan area to be whacked by a huge adjustment in its reported circulation numbers. In a rare move, the paper voluntarily submitted a revised six-month publisher's statement to the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the period from April 1 to Sept. 30, 2006 - the last period for which statements are available. The revised figures show a 15,000 copy-a-day - or 4 percent - decline in the average daily circulation to 363,100 from 378,100. The paper also reported a big drop in Sunday...

February 18, 2007 -- The magazine publishing world was abuzz last week as the latest circulation numbers showed continued weakness - meaning more editors are surely on the hot seat. Magazines - like television and other Old-Guard media - are seeing readers and advertising dollars follow consumers online. snip Rivals Time and Newsweek are also hurting, with Newsweek down 6.8 percent to 3.1 million, making it tough on Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Meacham, who's been in the top job since last autumn. Time is down 8.3 percent to 4 million. snip

NEW YORK In a surprising memo to staffers today, Leonard Downie, Jr., executive editor, announced several general and specific shakeups "to maximize readership of the printed newspaper, build audience on the Web site and further reduce costs in the newsroom." This includes a plan to "shrink" the newsroom, "tightening up the paper's news hole," cracking down on story length and moving reporters and editors "within and among staffs." The Post is now suffering from regular circulation declines. Downie called it nothing less than an "opportunity to transform journalism for a new era." He added that it is "the most important...

The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News both lost circulation in the latest reporting period, mirroring the downward trend of major metro dailies in the nation's struggling newspaper industry. The News declined 2.9 percent during the six-month period ended Sept. 30, falling to 255,675. The Post fell 3.2 percent to 255,935.

'L.A. Times' Reports Steep Circ Drop in FAS-FAX By Jennifer Saba Published: October 30, 2006 7:40 AM ET NEW YORK The Los Angeles Times keeps getting it on the chin or in the shins: declining advertising revenue, an ousted publisher, impending job cuts, wealthy locals angling for ownership (note to David Geffen: Have your people call Brian Tierney's people), displeased staffers, and now this. Circulation at the L.A. paper, according to the FAS-FAX released this morning, took one of its biggest drops ever with daily down 8% and Sunday down 6% for the six-month period ending September 2006. Many other...

There has been much discussion about the circulation drops for major newspapers. The Indianapolis Star earlier this year started sending us a FREE Thursday paper with our Sunday subscription, even though we didn't request it.This "conversion" as they called it (and remember, it wasn't voluntary and it is FREE) was cited in an earlier article as the reason they managed to eke out a 1% increase in their daily circulation.Today I got my bill, which offers to give me an enitre YEAR of FREE daily papers with my "Sunday offer" (which is Sunday plus Thursday and all holidays).This is what...

A new analysis of 50 years of changes in freshwater inputs to the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic may help shed light on what's behind the recently observed freshening of the North Atlantic Ocean. In a report, published in the August 25, 2006 issue of the journal, Science, MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) senior scientist Bruce J. Peterson and his colleagues describe a first-of-its-kind effort to create a big-picture view of hydrologic trends in the Arctic. Their analysis reveals that freshwater increases from Arctic Ocean sources appear to be highly linked to a fresher North Atlantic. "The high-latitude freshwater cycle is...

A Los Angeles Times editor, hoping to give his journalists a break from reporting the often grim news in America's second-largest city, offered an unusual morale booster Monday: pony rides. Managing Editor Doug Frantz ..."I hope it boosted morale..." Like many major U.S. newspapers, the Times, forced to compete with news Web sites on the Internet, has seen circulation decline.

AP BUSINESS WRITER NEW YORK -- Daily circulation fell 2.5 percent at U.S. newspapers in the six-month period ending in March, according to data released Monday, reflecting the industry's ongoing struggle to retain paying customers amid competition from the Internet and other media outlets. The Newspaper Association of America, analyzing data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, also reported that Sunday circulation fell 3.1 percent at the 610 newspapers reporting those figures. The 2.5 percent decline in average paid weekday circulation was based on data from 770 newspapers reporting to the Audit Bureau. The overall decline in both weekday and...

NEW YORK First glance at the Audit Bureau of Circulations FAS-FAX report finds that circulation sunk again this spring with major metros declining dramatically. Gains were slight. For the six-month period ending March 2006 compared to the same period a year ago, circulation at newspapers in major cities across the country continued to drop. Most notable so far: the San Francisco Chronicle, which experienced a dramatic 15% decline in daily copies, to 398,246. Daily circulation at the Los Angeles Times dropped about 5.4% to 851,832. Sunday proved better for the paper, down 1.8%. The San Jose Mercury News, which McClatchy...

Published: May 04, 2006 11:10 AM ET NEW YORK After a rough period of steep circulation declines, there was some hope that the FAS-FAX to be released next week would reveal that the bleeding has pretty much stopped. No such luck, apparently. Instead, it's likely that overall circulation will show another large decline when the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) releases its semi-annual FAS-FAX report on Monday. Industry sources are expecting overall decreases for daily circulation similar to the last two reporting periods -- somewhere around a 2% drop in daily and at least a 2.5% drop on Sunday for...

CHICAGO Louis Sito, the executive who apparently jump-started Newsday's stalled circulation while creating the other seemingly fast-growing Spanish-language daily Hoy, has surrendered to federal authorities on charges related to circulation fraud at the papers, Newsday reported Monday. Sito will plead guilty when he is arraigned on fraud charges, and has agreed to cooperate with investigators, according to the story by staff writers Robert E. Kessler and James T. Madore. The story quoted "sources familiar with the surrender." Four former Newsday executives, all of whom reported to Sito, have previously been indicted in the federal fraud case. Among them is Robert...

Boo-hoo, the Washington Post is struggling. They're having trouble making ends meet, their circulation is in the dumps, and they're being squeezed by their competition. Not only is the Washington Post in trouble, but other newspapers are having deep difficulties as well. According to Media Life: Circulation has tumbled, falling by 137,695 for the weekday paper in the past decade, from 816,474 for the year ended Sept. 30, 1995 to 678,779 for the six-month period ended Oct. 2, 2005. That's a decline of 17 percent. That's according to numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the latter of which has...

It’s the plight of so many American newspapers: declining circulation, flat or declining advertising revenues, rising newsprint costs. But it's a plight that seems to be hurting The Washington Post more. The Post announced just a week ago that it would be eliminating some 80 newsroom positions over the next year. That’s close to 10 percent of its reporters and editors. In some ways, the move isn’t really a surprise. Cuts and layoffs are increasingly common elsewhere. Not a week goes by that some paper somewhere in America isn't announcing yet another round of newsroom cuts. What's significant is who’s...

For the second year in a row, the cloak of sea ice on the Arctic Ocean failed to grow to its normal winter expanse, scientists said yesterday. The finding led some climate experts to predict a record expansion of open water this summer. "We keep looking for the ice to recover, but it isn't," said Mark C. Serreze, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., which monitors the region using satellites. "Unless conditions turn unusually cold this spring and summer, we may be looking at sea ice losses in 2006 that will rival...

Stem cell injections might someday be used to treat a debilitating cardiovascular condition called peripheral arterial disease (PAD), researchers say. People with PAD have poor blood circulation -- especially in the legs -- and can suffer sores, ulcers and even amputations. PAD is caused by a clogging and hardening of the arteries, and patients may need surgical procedures such as angioplasty or an artery bypass graft to widen narrowed blood vessels. However, as many as 12 percent of PAD patients can't have these surgical procedures. That's why researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis are investigating the...

NEW YORK A report in today's San Jose Mercury-News confirms a Wall Street Journal story published Tuesday which revealed that Knight Ridder is telling prospective buyers that its profits can be sharply increased by cutting jobs and benefits and reducing the size of some of its 32 newspapers. Pete Carey, reporting for the Knight Ridder-owned Mercury-News, writes, "All interested parties have signed confidentiality agreements. But leaks of the company's projections already have begun. "The figures Knight Ridder is giving potential buyers are similar to those in a Morgan Stanley research report published in November. The report, by analyst Douglas Arthur,...

GRAY LADY DOWN: Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Times publisher. The New York times is rapidly losing ground in its home market, with daily circulation off 19 percent from 2001 to 2004. Photo: AP The New York Times lost almost 20 percent of its readers in the five boroughs between 2001 and 2004 as the paper pushed to reinvent itself as a national publication. The Times' daily circulation in New York City dropped 18.7 percent during that period, to 260,526 copies from 320,682, according to figures obtained by The Post and confirmed by the Times. This means the Times' readership in...

NEW YORK - Les Goodstein, president and chief operating officer of the Daily News, has joined News Corp., owner of the rival New York Post, as a senior vice president, the Post’s publisher announced Tuesday. In the new position, Goodstein will be responsible for new business development and advise the Post and other News Corp. divisions, said Paul Carlucci, chairman of News America Marketing and publisher of the Post. The Daily News’ publisher, Mortimer Zuckerman, told the newspaper’s staff in a statement Tuesday that he would announce “major new leadership appointments” next week, including that of chief executive officer. Fred...

It was a year of goodbyes -- some noble, some less so -- as journalism's old guard departed from the spotlight. And it was a year when some of media's biggest institutions started thinking, in earnest, about reinvention. Dan Rather took his colorful metaphors and erratic temperament from CBS in March, his reputation marred by a flawed report about President Bush and the National Guard. Peter Jennings, suave and substantive, died tragically of lung cancer in August. Ted Koppel, who brought wit and heft to late-night news, left ABC's ''Nightline" in November, headed for less grueling work at HBO. Aaron...

NEW YORK After a period of several months, the Audit Bureau of Circulations has released an audit of the Chicago Sun-Times -- the first since the paper was censured in July 2004. For the six-month period ending March 2005, average paid daily circulation is 382,796 and Sunday average paid circulation is 333,490. Compared with the March 2003 audit report -- the last time ABC conducted an audit of the Sun-Times and before the paper admitted to inflating its numbers -- daily circ dropped by 99,625 copies, or 20.6%. Sunday fell by 42,911 copies, or 11.4%. According to the March 2005...

After a 13-year run, The Los Angeles Times is shutting its national edition next week, officials said yesterday. The separate national edition has been an endangered species for years, kept alive as a way to give the newspaper's reporting a physical presence in Washington and New York. But the edition was costly and the paper's owner, the Tribune Company, had been planning to shut it earlier this year. Instead, the company gave it a temporary reprieve, scaling it down in March from a four-section color broadsheet to a 24-page format measuring 11 inches by 19 inches, with no paid advertising.

Profit-driven media companies trimming muscle, not fat, are bad news for democracy, readers and business Everyone trying to lose weight should know that the trick is to cut fat and not muscle. This is not a lesson media companies have learned. Last month, Private Capital Management, a $32-billion money management firm, issued a sell-or-be-gone ultimatum to the board of Knight Ridder, the second largest newspaper proprietor in the land. And Knight Ridder has just received preliminary takeover bids. The prospective sale presages bad news for readers and reporters, and likely in the long run, for business, too. PCM is Knight...

The Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday laid off 21 employees throughout the company as it joined other U.S. newspapers struggling to cope with declining circulation and rising costs. In addition to the layoffs, 33 vacant positions won't be filled. Tribune Co. owns the Orlando Sentinel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Newspapers owned by the New York Times Co. and Knight Ridder Inc. also have announced plans to cut jobs. "We have tried to make changes that will allow us to cut costs," Orlando Sentinel Publisher Kathleen Waltz said. "We simply need to reset our cost structure going forward." Before the layoffs,...

NEW YORK Next to feel the knife in the current round of Tribune Co. job cuts--which in recent days have already hit papers in Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Orlando and Hartford--will be 'Newsday," in Melville, N.Y. A memo written Friday by Publisher Timothy P. Knight and posted today at the Romenesko site at www.poynter.org, saves the worst for last, revealing that "as we move through the process of re-organizing ourselves to meet our goals, we need to make very difficult decisions about how we allocate resources. This includes making staff reductions in union and non-union areas. We will be finalizing...

HARTFORD, CT. Hartford Courant is eliminating about 25 positions through attrition, voluntary buyouts, layoffs and leaving open jobs unfilled, according to a memo distributed Thursday. In an e-mail to Courant staff, publisher Jack Davis acknowledged that a similar step toward reducing expenses for 2006 had been taken in early October. Fourteen jobs were eliminated at that time. "However, given ongoing competitive media pressure and disappointing financial results, we need to achieve additional expense reductions if we are to remain as strong as possible in 2006 and beyond," Davis said in the e-mail. The Courant, with a daily circulation of about...

NEW YORK It has not been a kind year for the newspaper industry. With costs rising and circulation on the decline, newspaper companies have responded by trimming a considerable portion of their staffs this year. A review of past news reports offers up a startling number: more than 1,900 jobs have been cut from major and mid-sized newspapers over the past year. That figure does not include cuts at many smaller papers that don't often garner the same headlines. The downsizing began in January with acquisition-related cuts at The Herald-Sun in Durham, N.C., and Dow Jones' Consumer Electronic Publishing group....

LONDON - Trinity Mirror's woes have been compounded by a poor month for the Daily Mirror, which dropped below 1.7m copies for the first time after a 3.28% fall in circulation. The paper, which is currently facing the possibility of job cuts under a review announced by Trinity Mirror three weeks ago, sold almost 57,000 fewer copies than in September, leaving it at 1.684m copies. A Trinity Mirror spokesman said: "We continue to invest in our brands, both in content and marketing, but unlike our competitors, we're not going to use marketing just to attain a number. The fact that...

DALLAS Belo Corp. said Thursday that upcoming Audit Bureau of Circulation figures will show that its flagship Dallas Morning News will take a circulation hit of about 13% on Sundays and 9% on other days, for the most recent six-month period. It said circulation at its Providence (R.I.) Journal will be down about 1%, with The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., off 3% Sundays and 2% other days. Belo Corp. also disclosed that it received a subpoena this week from local prosecutors regarding overstated circulation figures at the Morning News. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert W. Decherd said the company...

East Bay readers say mass media will not fill void left by Nuevo Mundo Walking along International Boulevard in East Oakland, it's hard not to notice the many Spanish-language newspapers available in sidewalk bins, shops, schools and churches. While there is a plethora of news publications for Spanish-reading communities in the Bay Area — at least eight dailies and weeklies — many readers are upset to see the closing of Nuevo Mundo, a free weekly published by the San Jose Mercury News since 1996. The company announced in October it would close the paper and sell Viet Mercury, a Vietnamese-language...

Lousy circulation numbers may help explain why The Oregonian's felt a need to move to "high-definition Sundays," the mid-September makeover much mocked by the paper's reporters. The O's Sunday circulation numbers for the six-month period ending Sept. 30 fell 2.5 percent, to 394,992 Sunday subscribers, a number below the 400,000-subscriber figure that triggers higher ad rates. Not that The Oregonian was alone in the decline: National numbers reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations showed only one of 17 large papers (The New York Times) gaining readers on Sundays.