Average weekly circulation for big US newspapers fell again in the last six months. The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) said circulation for the 24 biggest US dailies fell 3.2% over the past half year. A notable exception was the Wall Street Journal, recently acquired by News Corporation, whose circulation was up 0.35%. The only other gainer was Gannett’s USA Today, up 0.3%.
The ABC report had bad news for Sam Zell and Tribune Company. Circulation fell 5.1% for the Los Angeles Times and 4.4% for the flagship Chicago Tribune. Or did it? The Chicago newspaper put out a press release proclaiming that print readership was up over the six-month period – but that tally added in the free RedEye edition to the drop in paid circulation. And if you add in online, the audience is even bigger. “Weekly readership of the Chicago Tribune and its related print and interactive media properties stands at a high of more than 5.5 million Chicagoland adults,” the company declared.
