Newspapers To Report Steep Decline In Circulation

Editor and Publisher:

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 newspapers throughout the country.

Read the whole story: Editor and Publisher

Comments

[realitytrumpsbull]

10:05 PM on 11/02/2007

Dead-tree should be maintained, but maybe as
a weekly instead of a daily, put the daily
tree-burners online.

[OckhamsElectricRazor]

09:42 AM on 11/02/2007

This is from all those children who were 'left behind' and CANNOT read the newspaper.

[xargaw]

11:29 PM on 11/01/2007

The national papers; The Washington Post, NY Times, Washington Times, WS Journal et al have become nothing but Administration talking points and excuse rags. Only little ol Knight Ridder did any investigative reporting in the run up to the War, and surprise surprise, they were the only paper that got things right. The papers and the MSM have orchestrated their own demise by being cheap, lazy and timid resulting in no news, no real analysis, no critical reporting. Why would a thinking person read the paper. The web is instant, offers critical feedback and the BS is challenged right away. When the papers with all those consumer ads pass away, I doubt anyone will notice, let alone care.

[ajax2]

11:15 PM on 11/01/2007

For six years newspapers were recycling hand-outs from the government by-lined by Miller, Armstrong, and other paid hacks. They added a deluge of opinion to go kill people in other countries, Brooks, Friedman, Novac, and Kruathammer. The public has been throwing this garbage in the trash for some time. The publishers were the last to know.

[youngharry]

09:18 PM on 11/01/2007

I don't know why anyone would buy a newspaper, especially a national newspaper like the NY Times or Washington Post. They are nothing more than right-wing talking points from George W. Bush and his Crime family.
They have never done any honest reporting on elections in this country or the real facts regarding Iraq.
I would like to see at least one editorial in the NY Times or Washington Post explaining the difference between Japan's unprovoked and illegal attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the unprovoked and illegal attack on Iraq by Bush and Company in 2003. The only difference is that the Japanese military and civilian government workers responsible for the attack on the US in 1941 were tried, convicted and executed as war criminals. That has yet to happen in the US because the national news media is complicit in the war crimes of Bush and Cheney. SO WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO BUY THEIR PROPAGANDA? THE FACTS, JUST THE FACTS.

[dr4Will]

09:15 PM on 11/01/2007

people are tired of the right wing fanatic newspapers in this country!!!

[maryec]

08:48 PM on 11/01/2007

I'm happy to see that others also are shunning newspapers because of the publishers' breathless support for GWBush, et al., and their policies. Wonder if they'll ever wake up?

[wm1066]

06:09 PM on 11/01/2007

The RightWing has bought up the papers and tried to sell us lies. And they wonder why they're taking a bath. I say let them go down, then they can be sold and bought by someone willing to tell the truth. I refuse to pay money for Bush schills.

[VOTER]

05:48 PM on 11/01/2007

Many subscribers are offended by the "bloody" war promoting papers

being left on their doorsteps each morning.

Has the internet upset the print media. Yes.

However, the papers can blame themselves for much of their

loss.

HELPING TO BRING US INTO BUSH'S WAR OF CHOICE by NOT DOING THEIR JOBS REPORTING THE TRUTH.

CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR THE KILLER CHIMP, EVEN WHILE HIS INSANITY IS NO LONGER QUESTIONABLE.

HAVE THEY FORGOTTEN IMPEACHMENT MEANS JUSTICE SERVED? YES.

THEIR REFUSALS TO HONOR OUR DEAD SOLDIERS BY PRINTING THE DAILY NUMBER OF THE DEAD AT THE TOP OF THEIR FRONT PAGES.

(As the publisher for the USA Today said on C-Span.
They don't want to offend readers by printing these numbers and the paper does print the information when milestones come up.) Huh? Group deaths, okay. Honoring individual soldiers, no. They should get ready as the number of dead American soldiers closes in on 4,000.

[EdwardEdwards]

04:08 PM on 11/01/2007

I'm a writer. Used to have a typewriter. When I learned how to use my first Mac computer, you'll never guess what happened? I never looked back to white-out, changing ribbons, etcetera.

But to this day, it's so easy to find some fogey like myself, pissing and moaning about the old days of typing. Yup. And I bet you miss that horse and buggy too, jackass.

Papers are old news. Even literally. Trees are more valuable a resource than holding inky paper in your hands with your coffee. Trust me, you can read a paper online with that same cup of coffee.

We all get that, right?

[hiplib]

03:29 PM on 11/01/2007

I used to be a newspaper junkie and read the New York Times and other papers cover to cover every day. However I was sickened by the way they all supported the Iraq invasion and still have "commentators" who shill for Bush. I want to avoid contributing to such people's incomes if I possibly can and now never ever buy newpspers or watch any TV or cable news whatroever. They are all proven liars. There is no "balance" to be found between truth and lies. The internet with its multiplicity of sources is a much better way of getting the news anyway and you can choose what you want to read about.

[olivia]

03:00 PM on 11/01/2007

It isn't just Fox that is corrupt.

This is a cut-and-paste from Mother Jones and it has been widely reported elsewhere, including on YouTube:

Kucinich Wins Debate Poll, ABC Covers Up Results

Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich's supporters (and, according to his website, even some non-supporters) are demanding that ABC explain its actions of the last few days.

On Monday afternoon, Congressman Kucinich took a significant lead in the ABC online poll: Who won the Democratic debate? About the time that he took that lead, ABC removed the poll from its prominent position on the ABC website. Then a new poll suddenly went up, "Who is winning the Democratic debate?"

Those events could be seen as technical glitches, but there was more to come. Kucinich took the lead in the second poll, also, and that poll, too, was dropped. ABC also "forgot" to announce the results (Kucinich tied with Sen. Hillary Clinton as the winner), and news about the poll is nowhere to be seen on the ABC website. Kucinich was also cut out of a group photo of all the candidates in the debate.

It's a wonder viewers were even able to vote for Kucinich in the poll. He was not permitted to answer a question from debate moderator George Stephanopoulos until the debate had been under way for half an hour.

So far, the network has failed to respond to questions about these events.

[pigsatthetrough]

02:35 PM on 11/01/2007

Fox is no more prepared than the others including CNN. They all have an emergency plan. 60 minutes, or rather 24-7 of commercials. It won't really seem much different!

[blooddoc]

02:24 PM on 11/01/2007

The internet has been eating away at print media for years now, which is sad because these forms of interactive communication should be on the same team. Radio, TV, and movies are all one-way communication; people have no input as to what they see and hear. With print and internet, you can at least send in a letter to the editor, or post on a blog. Add to this the point that people don't (can't?) read much anymore, and this is what you get. The only way to reverse this is to make newspapers required reading early in education, with in-class discussions of news of the day.

[alohajoe007]

02:17 PM on 11/01/2007

The above comment is right on. But let's go a step further when Bush was appointed (recall that he was NEVER elected first time around) the papers ceased printing the news. Instead they allowed themselves to become pawns for his cartel. So WHY should we the people go out or have delviered a paper that is mostly trash (literally) that tells only lies? Even the ads for jobs are no good only the ads to sell cars which too is rapidly declining since the papers have raised their rates to compensate their loss of biz which further aggravates theri loss of circulation. DUMB. They have negated themselves. Plus online news is not only faster easier it also allows us to see many other papers from other countries to compare the "truthiness" of our local papers which are few since only a handfull of moguls own them now. Hence the current attack on internet freedom. The free press has become their own enemy.