from NYPost.com
Almost as big a milestone as that 300,000,000th baby! The New York Post crows today that it has officially surpassed the New York Daily News in circulation, issuing a front-page smackdown on the subject, because clearly that's the most important news of the day. Congratulations, Post!
The Post boasted an average paid Mon-Fri circulation of 704,011 for the six months ending Sept. 30, 2006, an increase of 34,348 over a year prior. The former fifth-placer, the NYDN, is now in 6th place with a Mon-Fri circ of 693,382, followed by The Washington Post at 656,297. We'll be more interested in these numbers when they fold in internet pickup; we suspect WaPo has the NYP and NYDN beat in online re-circulation (if not Pulitzers).
In the top spot is USA Today with 2,269,509; the WSJ at 2,043,235 (doing a pretty decent job of milking the subscription model plus freeing up key content to the blogosphere) and the NYT at 1,086,798 (a decrease of 3.5%, though not as hefty as the chart-topping 8% afflicting 4th place Los Angeles Times). The Post and the News are the only papers who haven't taken a circulation hit (5.3% and 1% respectively), besides the St. Louis Post-Dispatch which is up 0.6%. Full list of Top 25 papers after the jump; just kidding on the Pulitzer thing. But, dare to dream!
Here are the top 25 daily newspapers in the U.S. by circulation (with percent change) for the six-month period ending September 2006.
1. USA Today: 2,269509, (-1.3%)
2. The Wall Street Journal: 2,043235, (-1.9%)
3. The New York Times: 1,086,798, (-3.5%)
4. Los Angeles Times: 775,766, (-8.0%)
5. The New York Post: 704,011, 5.3%
6. Daily News: 693,382, 1.0%
7. The Washington Post: 656,297, (-3.3%)
8. Chicago Tribune: 576,132, (-1.7%)
9. Houston Chronicle: 508,097, (-3.6%)
10. Newsday: 413,579, (-4.9%)
11. The Arizona Republic, Phoenix: 397,294, (-2.5%)
12. The Boston Globe: 386,415, (-6.7%)
13. The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.: 378,100, (-5.5%)
14. San Francisco Chronicle: 373,805, (-5.3%)
15. The Star Tribune, Minneapolis: 358,887, (-4.1%)
16. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 350,157, (-3.4%)
17. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland: 336,939, (-0.6%)
18. The Philadelphia Inquirer: 330,622, (-7.5%)
19. Detroit Free Press: 328,628, (-3.6%)
20. The Oregonian, Portland: 310,803, (-6.8%)
21. The San Diego Union-Tribune: 304,334, (-3.1%)
22. St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times: 288,676, (-3.2%)
23. The Orange County (Calif.) Register: 287,204, (-3.7%)
24. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 276,588, 0.6%
25. The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee: 273,609, (-5.4%)
