More bad news for newspapers -- circulation declines continue

Newspapers got a bit more bad news today, courtesy of circulation figures for the six-month period ending September 2008 showing continuing declines for most papers.

Here in Florida, the St. Petersburg Times lost 19,873 subscribers daily from September 2007 levels, a dip of 6 percent. On Sundays, our circulation basically stayed steady, rising by 337 subscriptions to 390,289. I don't think it's much of a coincidence that these changes happened during a time when we shrank the size of our daily paper, while shifting most of our best work to Sundays.

The Tampa Tribune dropped 4,560 daily subscribers from September 2007 to September 2008, down to 187,689 paid subscribers. On Sundays, the Tribune's paid circulation dropped 3,785 to 258,089 subscriptions, or about 1.4 percent.

Elsewhere in Florida, the news didn't get much better: the Herald Tribune in Sarasota was down 7,247 to 97,824 on Sundays, down 4,676 to 84,291 daily. The Miami Herald lost 27,702 on Sundays to 279,484 and 28,296 daily to 210,884. The Orlando Sentinel also dropped 7,043 to 206,363 daily and down 10,418 on Sundays to 307,976.

Nationwide, among the five biggest papers, only USA Today and the Wall Street Journal kept circulation essentially even daily, at 2.2-million and 2-million subscribers, respectively. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and New York Daily News all lost circulation in drops ranging from 3 percent to 7 percent.

And the good news, as presented by trade magazine Editor and Publisher, didn't feel so good. The Top 10 gainers in circulation only included one paper with more than 100,000 subscribers, the Las Vegas Review Journal, which gained .85 percent to 165,010.

So, as we've seen, the trend of really small and really big papers maintaining their subscribers is continuing. But for the rest of us in the big middle, there seems to be little but tough times on the horizon.

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Comments

[Clickjim]

I get the Times from a box on a daily basis. I now get my news on the WEB. Two reasons for my change first and most important the delivery time. I like to get the paper very early. Second is the fact the paper shrunk and the price went up. Here's more bad news. I no longer use the Times WEB site. It is not up to date and runs old stuff to long. I would imagine you will loose that also.

[Eric Deggans]

I'll just note that our circulation didn't suffer on Sunday, which is packed with the same kind of journalism you say is so biased the six other days of the week.

[Newzaroo]

Eric,

I read your post, but don't care why circulation is down in New York and Houston for conservative fish-wrap. I'm focused on why Tampa Bay readers are rejecting "Florida's Best Liberal Newspaper" with circulation down 6.88%

It may be right wing politics and class warfare to you, but consider the pathetic bums hired by the Times to stand at intersections hawking copies through the car window. Bad public relations and an even nastier taste in the mouth.

Instead, The Times should put star columnists like Eric Deggan's and Howard Troxler on every street corner to keep their paychecks coming. I'll bet CNN Reliable Sources feeds the ego, but not the kids.

Clean up your act St. Pete Times. Somebody might just slip you a buck and pay attention again. But you need to earn it first, which is where the homeless got a leg up on you.

[beltwaybandit]

To Eric: "people who talk that way about newspapers are talking about liberal bias" is an interesting point.

When liberals talk about conservative bias in newspapers, they usually talk about how big business monopolies control the media (NY Post/Fox, etc.).

Of course, there are far less conservative-slanted newspapers (editorially) than liberal-slanted, so you don't hear much about the conservative-biased newspapers.

Undoubtedly a point that liberals prefer not to discuss much.

That said, I concur that political persuasion has very little to do with circulation declines.

To those who think this latest circulation report is good news for the St. Pete Times:

If you feel that because they did not drop as much as others...this particular time...that this is a good thing for the Times, then you need to consider some facts.

The newspaper industry is in full decline not only in circulation, but also ad revenue. Several factors impact revenue, mainly the shift to digital as a more efficient marketing channel than newspapers. The recent economy decline has only exacerbated an already identified problem.

Anyone in the newspaper industry...and there are quite a few, unfortunately...who looks at data like these circulation figures as some sort of good news, all they are doing is fooling themselves.

The newspaper industry in its present form is toast just because its business model has become obsolete and a new one has eluded the managements thus far.

The Times will most certainly survive the Tribune, but as many business ghosts of the past will confirm, "being number one in the buggy-whip business means little when fdemand for buggy-whips disappears."

The newspaper business is moving toward buggy-whip industry status. It's just a question of the timeline.

[David]

I agree...I don't think that politics had anything to do with these numbers.

I think it's a generational thing -- my parents have subscribed to the SPT (and even the Clearwater Sun, back in the day) for as long as I can remember. I'm sure it's been at least as long as they have been married, which is 50 years now.

But I don't get my news the same way. I am a child of the Internet, RSS feeds, blogs, etc, and cannot ever picture myself subscribing to a newspaper. For me, it has nothing to do with bias, as ALL papers have some kind of slant.

The economy is probably causing some long-time (and Social Security dependent) subscribers to re-evaluate whether they can afford to subscribe. My parents have commented about the changes in the physical size of the paper, as well as the changes in the "news" size of the Monday-Saturday editions, but have kept their subscription.

I can almost imagine a day in the not too distant future where newspapers will cease to exist in printed form.

[Eric Deggans]

Did you read the previous message, Newszaroo?

Did you read the full blog post?

Given that conservative-friendly newspapers notched some of the biggest declines, I don't think political stuff had much to do with these numbers...

[Newzaroo]

From Audit Bureau of Circulations.

ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES -- 268,935 -- (-6.88%)

Point of fact, that's not a 6% drop - it's almost 7%. Obviously and tragically, newspaper readers are deciding they can do without the St. Pete Times.

One might wonder if subscribers are fleeing the Times for it's left leaning election coverage in a super-charged political season. But there is hope.

The Sunday endorsement of Barack Obama will surely bring a surge of suburban home deliveries.

[Eric Deggans]

assuming that you're talking about liberal bias -- because everybody who talks like that about newspapers is talking about liberal bias -- I have a question for you:

How should conservative newspapers such as the New York Daily News, the New York Post and the Houston Chronicle explain circulation losses of 7 percent, 6 percent and 11 percent, respectively?

Considering that every newspaper in the nation's top 25 ppers lost circulation but the top two, I really don't think liberal/conservative politics had much to do with this...

[Ron]

If the St Petersburg Times is sincere about wanting to boost circulation, it should go back to fairly and accurately reporting the news and stop promoting an agenda.

[Lin Young]

A drop of 19,873 papers sold daily isn't bad, but circulation was recently 316,007 daily, and 432,779 on Sundays according to an April 29, 2008 article by now retired times business writer Helen Huntley. So if circulation has now dropped to 390,289 for Sundays, that's bad.

Although having more than a third of a million people buying the paper isn't anything to sneeze at. Any way you look at it, the St. Petersburg Times consistently ranks in the top 20 or 22 by circulation for all United States newspapers and there are still hundreds of them. Which means that only 19 or 21 newspapers in this country have a higher circulation than the Times does. Viewed that way, it's a whole different competition, especially considering how small St. Petersburg is population wise, which means the newspaper attracts many subscribers from the metro area.

Bigger newspapers with 1 million or more subscribers, such as USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times are really national newspapers. I had home delivery of both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal many years before I moved to Florida and became a St. Petersburg Times subscriber. I can also pick up The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today in news boxes all across the nation, can't do that with the St. Petersburg Times, so it's holding its own considering it is a regional newspaper, not a national one.

And unlike some of the other larger regional dailies, such as the Washington Post, New York Post, Chicago Tribune and Sun Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe and Atlanta-Journal Constitution (which I used to buy at boxes throughout the south) the St Petersburg Times, as noted, is headquartered in a small population city, at least small population when compared to New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Atlanta. So I say, congrats to the St. Petersburg Times for having such a large circulation to begin with and for holding on to that in an area of low wages during a recession. Good job!

If the St. Petersburg Times is sincere about wanting to boost circulation they should run more specials. I know retired people who have had to let their newspaper subscription go along with their Internet connection and cable TV account. I know jobless people who have had the same experience, but would like to read the newspaper. I got an annual subscription on a special myself, or I would have trouble. In this economy, no business is certain it can stay in business and no employee is certain he or she will have a job tomorrow.

[dreaming]

products have a way of becoming obsolete: film cameras, typewriters, cordless telephones, vcrs, picture tube tvs.

the pawn shops of tampa are full of this stuff. you wake up one day and you realize that time has just passed you (or a product) by.

mid sized papers, im afraid, are on the endangered species list.