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                                  National Post's circulation falls by 10%



RICHARD BLACKWELL
globeandmail.com
Tuesday May 1st, 2007


Newspapers in Canada's largest markets showed a slight overall circulation drop in the past six months, although several papers managed to squeeze out small gains.

For the six months to March 31, Monday-to-Friday paid circulation among the 16 Canadian newspapers that deliver more than 100,000 copies a day fell by just over 1 per cent on average, compared with the same period a year earlier.

On weekends, the biggest papers collectively saw a circulation drop of close to 2 per cent.

The unaudited numbers were released yesterday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.


The average decline would have been much smaller, however, if it weren't for a major drop in circulation at one individual paper -- the National Post.

The Post's weekday circulation fell more than 24,000 or 10.7 per cent, to 203,781 in the six-month period. On the weekends, its circulation was down more than 29,000, or 11.9 per cent, to 217,115.

The next biggest drop on weekdays was at the Vancouver Province, down 2.4 per cent. On weekends, the next largest drop was at the Ottawa Citizen, where circulation fell 6.2 per cent.

Still, of the 16 papers in Canada's biggest newspaper markets, half showed circulation increases on weekdays. The strongest showing was at Le Journal de Québec, which delivered an average of 103,220 weekday papers, up 2,497, or 2.5 per cent, in the six-month period.

The Globe and Mail reported a 0.2-per-cent increase in weekday circulation to 322,807, but a 0.3-per-cent drop on Saturdays, to 410,285.

Canadian papers appear to be healthier over all than their U.S. counterparts. ABC figures south of the border were released yesterday, and a Newspaper Association of America analysis showed average weekly circulation down 2.1 per cent in the six months to March 31.

One of the biggest drops in the U.S. was at the Dallas Morning News, where circulation was off 14.3 per cent to 411,919. It was censured in 2004 for misstating its circulation.

Among the big gainers was the New York Post, with circulation up 7.6 per cent to 724,748.

One positive aspect of the U.S. numbers, the NAA said, is that subscriber "churn" is down substantially, meaning newspapers are having an easier time retaining subscribers.

In Canada, it's a good sign for the newspaper business that circulation numbers for the printed product are relatively stable, said Anne Kothawala, president of the Canadian Newspaper Association.

While overall circulation has slipped slightly, most papers are seeing dramatic increases in the number of readers who are using their Internet sites, she said. The key issue for many papers is how to make money out of their Web operations, she said.

If people who read newspaper content online are added to the print numbers, "there are more newspaper readers today than there were 20 years ago," she said.

Young people also appear to want news from trusted newspaper websites, she added. "Brand recognition in the marketplace is not something people should be forgetting about. Newspapers have spent a long time building up that trust and credibility in the marketplace, and that is seeping down to the youth as well."

PAPER CIRCULATION CHANGE

Monday to Friday, six months to March 31. Papers with circulation over 100,000

WHO'S UP

Le Journal de Québec 2.5 per cent

Winnipeg Free Press 1.6 per cent

The Hamilton Spectator 1.4 per cent

La Presse 0.9 per cent

The Toronto Sun 0.4 per cent

Toronto Star 0.2 per cent

The Globe and Mail 0.2 per cent

Le Journal de Montréal 0.2 per cent

WHO'S DOWN

Halifax Chronicle Herald -0.2 per cent

The Vancouver Sun -1.3 per cent

Calgary Herald -1.4 per cent

Ottawa Citizen -1.9 per cent

Edmonton Journal -2.2 per cent

Montreal Gazette -2.2 per cent

Vancouver Province -2.4 per cent

National Post -10.7 per cent

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070501.RABC01/TPStory/Business

                             Circulation slips at newspapers across country
             Seattle P-I's weekday numbers fall 2.9 percent; Web page views climb


seattlepi.com
Tuesday, May 1, 2007


Weekday circulation at U.S. daily newspapers fell 2.1 percent in the latest six-month reporting period, according to figures released Monday, in the latest sign that people are turning to the Internet and other media for news.





Comparable figures for Sunday newspapers fell 3.1 percent, according to the Newspaper Association of America, an industry group. The calculations are based on average circulation during the period ended March 31, compared with that same period the year before, as reported to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

  
The Seattle P-I remains the second-largest newspaper in the state, as measured by weekday circulation. At the P-I, Monday-through-Friday circulation dropped by 2.9 percent, to 128,012. Daily circulation at The Seattle Times dropped by 0.5 percent, to 219,722.

The Sunday edition of The Seattle Times, to which the Seattle P-I contributes some material, dropped by 2.7 percent, to 423,635. The Saturday P-I fell in circulation by 1.7 percent, to 113,759, while the Saturday Times fell by 0.2 percent, to 199,938.

"The numbers have declined slightly, and that's never good news," P-I Editor and Publisher Roger Oglesby said. "But they've declined a lot less steeply than in previous periods, and less steeply than at some larger metropolitan papers. And by every different measure I see, our online presence is growing much faster than our circulation is declining."

The P-I's Web site got an average of 32.6 million page views a month during the six-month period ended March 31, up 6.2 percent from the same period last year.

The site had an average of 1.8 million unique visitors a month, up 3 percent.

The Times' site got an average of 43.3 million page views a month during the period, up 14.9 percent, and got an average of 2.2 million unique visitors a month, up 7 percent.

Among the state's smaller papers, Tacoma's News Tribune fell by 4.9 percent in Monday-Friday circulation, to 119,077. The Everett Herald declined by 2.5 percent, to 49,109. Bremerton's Kitsap Sun lost 0.1 percent, falling to 29,995. Olympia's Olympian declined by 3.3 percent, to 32,344.

Across the state, Spokane's Spokesman-Review weekday circulation declined by 1.6 percent, to 93,355.

Among the largest U.S. newspapers, performance was mixed for the six months ending in March, with several showing gains, most notably the New York Post, which is locked in a fierce competition with the Daily News.

Those papers had the largest gains among the major dailies, with the Post's average weekday circulation rising 7.6 percent over the same period a year earlier, while the Daily News rose 1.4 percent.

The New York Post, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate News Corp., recently announced that it would double its weekday price as of Monday to 50 cents from 25 cents.

The Daily News, owned by real estate developer Mortimer Zuckerman, charges 50 cents on weekdays.

Gannett Co.'s USA Today remained the largest daily in the country, with circulation of 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent from the same period a year earlier, ahead of The Wall Street Journal at 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent.

The Dallas Morning News, owned by Belo Corp., posted a 14.3 percent decline to 411,919, reporting for the first time since being censured in 2004 for misstating its circulation figures.

Newsday, based on Long Island, N.Y., had a 6.9 percent decline to 398,231. That paper, owned by Tribune Co., also had been censured for misstating circulation but returned to reporting circulation for the period ending in March 2006.

The Chicago Sun-Times remains the only major newspaper that had been censured by the Audit Bureau for misstatements in 2004 and has still not yet resumed reporting.

The Sun-Times' parent company had been known as Hollinger International Inc., run by now-deposed media baron Conrad Black, and is now known as the Sun-Times Media Group Inc.

Newspaper circulation has been declining steadily for years amid changing reader habits and the emergence of other media for news, particularly 24-hour cable TV news and the Internet. But the average weekday decline of 2.1 percent in the latest period was not as steep as the drop of 2.8 percent reported for the six-month period ending in October, or the six months ending in March 2006, when the decline was 2.5 percent.

Many newspapers are attracting readers and advertising dollars through their Web sites, though the growth in online revenue is generally outweighed by declines in print advertising, which still makes up the vast majority of newspapers' business.

Online readership of newspaper sites continues to grow. The NAA pointed to recently released data from Nielsen//NetRatings showing a 5.3 percent increase in the number of people who visited newspaper Web sites in the first quarter of 2007.

Yet the industry continues to struggle with how to adapt to a new environment.

Last year, Google said it was going to start selling advertisements that will appear in the print editions of 50 major newspapers. That new system offered the industry a curious bargain: The publishers can get revenue, but in doing so they may well make Google -- already the biggest seller of online advertising -- even stronger.


CIRCULATION
Average paid weekday circulation of the nation's 10 largest newspapers for the six-month period ending in March, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations:

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 2.1 percent

9. Houston Chronicle -- 503,114, down 2 percent

10. The Arizona Republic -- 433,731, down 1.1 percent



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P-I reporter Dan Richman contributed to this report, which includes information from The Associated Press and The New York Times.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/313695_circulation01.html