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2009 took a toll among traditional media companies, with a record number of bankruptcies among newspaper publishers. Some are set to continue into 2010, despite assurances from top executives that they would be resolved before year's end. The biggest ongoing newspaper bankruptcy is Tribune Co.'s Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which celebrated its first anniversary on Dec. 8, two years after the ill-fated deal engineered by Sam Zell to take the company private as an employee-owned business at a cost of $8.8 billion. As chairman and CEO, Zell came to rue his role in the highly leveraged deal, which gave new...

Former Gov. Hiram Johnson, recently posthumously inducted into the California Museum’s Hall of Fame, helped create California’s initiative process to break the stranglehold of the railroads on the state Legislature. Johnson, a Sacramento native who was governor from 1911 to 1917, is likely spinning in his grave. As of December 14, there are 45 measures being circulated for voter signatures, another 38 are awaiting titles and summaries by the Attorney General. So far, three initiatives have qualified for the 2010 primary election – the most significant of which would create open primaries in 2012 allowing voters to cast a ballot...

No surprise that Americans are dropping their newspaper subscriptions, as a new batch of numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulations showed yesterday. But before you file this under “death of newspapers”, do ponder this for a second: Declining circulation might not be the worst news in the world. Tough times have forced many papers to rethink their circulation strategies. An obvious conclusion: Much of the money publishers were spending to print and deliver dead trees has gone to waste. New strategy: Print fewer copies, and charge more for the ones you do sell. That’s a tactic, not a strategy,...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Daily circulation figures for US newspapers released on Monday provided more bad news for the embattled industry. Average daily circulation fell more than 10 percent in the April-September period compared with the same period last year, accelerating a slide that has led to bankruptcies, closures and cutbacks in newsrooms across the country. Average circulation for 562 Sunday newspapers was down 7.49 percent. The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures also confirmed a claim made earlier this month by The Wall Street Journal that it had become the largest US newspaper by weekday circulation, leapfrogging USA Today. Of...

The latest FAS-FAX for the six months ending Sept. 30 is here in a matter of moments and some numbers are already trickling out. We already know about the massive 17% drop at USA Today and now there's this: Compared to the same six-month period ending September 2008, daily (Monday-Friday) circulation at The New York Times is down 7.2% to 927,851. Sunday fell 2.6% to 1,400,302. Los Angeles Times reported daily is off 11% to 657,467 and 6.7% on Sunday to 983,702. The San Francisco Chronicle lost more than a quarter of its daily circ, down 25.8% to 251,782. Sunday...

When the Audit Bureau of Circulations releases the latest numbers on Oct. 26, it will show that USA Today's circulation fell 17% to 1.88 million for the six months ending September 2009, a drop of about 390,000 copies. The decline could also threaten USA Today’s position as the No. 1 newspaper in the country by circulation. To put that in perspective, the reduction of copies represents roughly the entire daily circulation of The Arizona Republic the 10th largest paper in the U.S. as of spring. The loss was an expected one at the Nation's Newspaper, which implemented a price increase...

The most recent six-month period for measuring newspaper circulation ended last Wednesday. It takes a month or so to assemble the results, so watch for actual numbers around Halloween. I'm sticking my neck out only a little in predicting they will be a veritable house of horrors. Here's why this six-month period is likely be be even worse than the period ended March 31, which saw average losses of 7 percent daily and 5.3 percent Sunday compared to the same period in 2008: This is the first six-month period likely to show the full effect of the recession on customers...

Nobody in their right mind believes the future of the news business involves paper and ink rather than pixels on a screen. We all know where the news business is headed, and what's more, we've known it for at least a decade. So why on earth are people talking about a bailout for newspapers? Why is President Obama saying he'd consider it? Why is Congress holding hearings and considering "The Newspaper Revitalization Act" in a bid to save these ailing old rags with tax breaks and other handouts? It's like introducing legislation to save horse-drawn carriages, or steam engines, or...

Despite some tentative optimism from Washington, Wall Street and Madison Avenue, people who monitor the newspaper business for a living say it has not yet hit bottom. But in what passes for good news these days, the free fall in newspaper advertising may be slowing, and specialists predict it will ease through 2009 and into 2010. With 10 days left in the third quarter, analysts, publishers and ad buyers say that ad revenue will be down about 25 percent industrywide from the third quarter last year, possibly a little less. They predict that the decline will be smaller in the...

Environmentalists, or opportunists, depending on your viewpoint, had been forcing the Bush administration to list the fuzzy white polar bears on the Endangered Species List. This would have allowed the environmentalists to force the United States to adopt a Kyoto type carbon emissions program without ever having a vote in Congress. They were using the bears to push their agenda. The discussions were covered under many venues so there should be no doubt that this was at least one of the objectives. The logic goes that the IPCC says man’s CO2 is warming the world so Arctic ice will melt...

Condé Nast folds Portfolio even as it starts Wired in print in the U.K. So which are we to take as the harbinger for the future of magazines? I hate to be calling doom for yet another medium, but I fear that Portfolio is the better indicator. We’ll see magazines fold and it’s going to be a lot riskier to start new ones to replace them — riskier because, just as on TV and in movies and music, it’s harder to create a blockbuster and consumer magazines depend on the blockbuster economy. Magazines don’t make money until they hit magic...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – If there's one thing that the U.S. public is not giving newspapers, it's their support. Paid weekday newspaper circulation in the six-month period that ended March 31 fell 7 percent to 34.4 million, compared with the same period last year, according to new figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). That decline, which tracked 395 daily newspapers that had five-day-a-week circulation in both periods, accelerated from last year's decline of 3.6 percent. Sunday circulation at 557 papers fell more than 5 percent to 42.1 million. Last year, circulation fell 4.6 percent. The declines may...

The Audit Bureau of Circulations released this morning the spring figures for the six months ending March 31, 2009, showing that country’s largest metros continue to shed daily and Sunday circulation. The percent comparisons are for the same period ending in March 2008. (All daily averages are for Monday through Friday.) Daily circulation at The New York Times dropped 3.5% to 1,039,031. Sunday circulation was down 1.7% to 1,451,233. The Washington Post lost 1.6% of its daily circ to 665,383 and 2.3% to 868,965. USA Today, as reported earlier this month, lost 7.4% of its daily circulation to 2,113,725 due...

The pall looming over U.S. newspapers grew even darker Monday as Gannett Co. informed most of its employees that they will have to take another week of unpaid leave this spring, while a Michigan daily unveiled plans to close its print edition after 174 years. And The Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, also ordered pay cuts and 10-day furloughs for nonunion employees Monday to cut costs as advertising revenue drops. The moves were just the latest sign of the distress afflicting newspapers across the country as they try to cope with a dramatic shift in advertising that is forcing publishers...

As many newspapers struggle to stay economically viable, fewer than half of Americans (43%) say that losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in their community "a lot." Even fewer (33%) say they would personally miss reading the local newspaper a lot if it were no longer available. Not unexpectedly, those who get local news regularly from newspapers are much more likely than those who read them less often to see the potential shutdown of a local paper as a significant loss. More than half of regular newspaper readers (56%) say that if the local newspaper they read most...

Three Calkins Media newspapers in suburban Philadelphia will stop publishing Saturday print editions next week. The Bucks County Courier Times, The Intelligencer of Doylestown and the Burlington County Times in Willingboro, N.J., will continue to publish Saturday editions online. The newspapers announced the change Saturday. It goes into effect Feb. 7. Publisher Michael Scobey says the move is being made to control costs and provide expanded local and national news and sports coverage. Scobey says the change is a return to the traditional publishing schedule. The Saturday print editions were introduced about five years ago. He says the market no...

HOWDY FREEPERS!!!!!!!This morning my op-ed focuses on one of Oklahoma's most well respected bloggers.Michael Bates is a well respected blogger who authors the blog Batesline (http://www.batesline.com) He also writes a column for an alternative media source, Urban Tulsa Weekly.When Michael composes a blog one of the things he always takes care to do is research his material for his blogs and get his facts straight.Recently, Mr. Bates was hit with a lawsuit by World Publishing Company, publishers of the Tulsa World. Apparently this had to do with a piece he composed on January 15 regarding the World's declining circulation.Now, here...

Facing increased costs of postage and maintaining its circulation, Newsweek has been quietly considering a drop its circulation guarantee by a million copies or more, FOLIO: has learned. Executives at Newsweek began discussing a rate base rollback as early as this summer, according to a pair of sources familiar with these discussions. Both sources say that the magazine is considering slashing up to 1.6 million copies from Newsweek’s current rate base of 2.6 million, which would put the magazine’s rate base at 1 million. Newsweek declined to comment. “A million [rate base] was the extreme,” said the source. But, as...

Could things get much worse for the newspaper industry? After all, right now: * McClatchy's September print advertising sales dropped 23 percent year on year (YOY). * The entire industry is forecast to lose 16.5% of its annual ad revenue from 2007 to 2008. * Q2 industry statistics show overall revenue dropping 13.9%, with a whopping loss of 27% YOY in classified. * Gallup's polling shows that 52% of the American public do not trust news media. As it turns out, they could get worse, and quite suddenly. Like the housing bubble and the financial crash, the signs are already...

For those holding out for some improvement in print circulation, this morning brings disappointment. The Audit Bureau of Circulations released the latest figures for the six- month period ending September 2008 and the report shows major drops in circulation at the big metros. Across the country, publishers have put in place plans to cater to core readers and subscribers. It's too expensive to bulk up circulation in unprofitable areas such as third-party, newspapers in education and bonus day copies. Not in the core market defined by the newspaper, a reader is out of luck at least for the print edition....

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...