US: Circulation figures show promise

Posted by Allie Judson on November 2, 2006 at 12:39 PM

Recently the Audit Bureau of Circulations released a study reporting that in the last 6 months newspaper circulation has dropped another 2.8% daily and 3.4% Sunday. Though the drop is discouraging, the plummeting numbers might be what the industry needs.

Part of the decline is because of the increase of digital media. The Newspaper Association of America reported that 57 million Americans visit newspaper websites for an average of 1.37 minutes a day.
Newspapers could be using this as a time for re-model, cutting unnecessary costs leading to a slight numbers decline. In theory, after the budget shrinking the numbers should start to level out.
Papers are working on cutting discount subscriptions, free papers, and circulation beyond the main market. All of these areas take money from the newspapers. Cutting circulation will lower the numbers but hopefully bring in more revenue.

Source: Newsosaur

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