“Overall circulation industrywide is flat and digital is growing,” said Neal Lulofs, an executive vice president with the Alliance for Audited Media, which released the figures. “Newspapers are engaging with readers in a variety of media types wherever and whenever.”
The 593 daily newspapers that were audited had a 0.7 percent daily circulation decline. The Wall Street Journal has the highest circulation at 2,378,827, a 12.3 percent jump from the same time the year before. The New York Times replaced USA Today in second place with a circulation of 1,865,318 a 17.6 percent rise from a year ago. USA Today circulation was down 7.9 percent, dropping to 1,674,306. The Los Angeles Times and New York Daily News followed in fourth and fifth places.
The figures include both print and digital subscriptions.
For the 519 Sunday newspapers audited, total circulation declined 1.4 percent. The New York Times ranked first with an average circulation of 2,322,429, a 15.9 percent increase from the same time the year before. The Houston Chronicle ranked second, despite a 5.8 percent decline to 1,042,389. The Los Angeles Times was third; its circulation remained flat at 954,010. The Washington Post had a 16.5 percent circulation jump to 838,014, putting it in fourth place ahead of The Chicago Tribune.
Mr. Lulofs cautioned that growth for some newspapers could be attributed to how they have incorporated the community newspapers they own into their figures. For example, The Chicago Sun-Times experienced an 11.6 percent rise in its daily circulation growth, which included 55,241 daily copies sold by its regional papers. The Orange County Register recorded a 26.8 percent increase in its daily circulation, largely from the 84,071 generated by its branded newspapers.
Other papers showed growth because they started to include more varieties of digital editions, Mr. Lulofs said. For example, the Star Ledger of Newark, an Advance Publications paper that has been facing potential cuts in its daily coverage, experienced a 22.2 percent rise in daily circulation, with its digital circulation more than doubling in the past year, according to numbers provided by the Alliance.
Still, these digital figures should not be dismissed as simple maneuvering. Digital growth for The Wall Street Journal grew by 62.6 percent, to 898,012 in March 2013 from 552,288 in March 2012. Last week, The New York Times Company announced during its quarterly earnings call that the number of paid digital subscribers to The Times and The International Herald Tribune had grown to 676,000 by the end of March.
“You’re going to continue to see an evolution and I guess a transformation,” Mr. Lulofs said.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/business/media/digital-subscribers-buoy-newspaper-circulation.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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