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Digital circulation up 63% for U.S. newspapers

Staci D. Kramer — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:15:05 +0000

The semi-annual numbers are out from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, marking the first time we have year-over-year comparables since the ABC changed its digital reporting guidelines. This used to be a fairly easy affair — you looked at the charts and you could see winners and losers at a glance. It’s not that easy now, however, since the agency’s efforts to measure total circulation in these complicated times altered the field. The ABC even includes a warning “against drawing too many direct comparisons of the data in today’s FAS-FAX report.”

The ABC rule changes make it easier for newspapers to break their circulation into recognizable, meaningful categories that can be audited, for instance, counting all digital circulation instead of limiting it to replica editions. They recognize that the same information can be delivered in different ways but still needs to be verified for marketers. (More background here and here.)

Some top-line numbers for the six-month period ending March 31, 2012:

Digital circulation now accounts for 14.2 percent of newspapers’ total circulation mix; up 63 percent from 8.66 percent in March 2011. That includes tablet or smartphone apps, replica editions, metered or restricted-access websites, and e-reader editions. That’s the same percent increase as the report covering the reporting period that ended in September.
Average daily circulation was up .68 percent; that covers 628 papers.
Average Sunday circulation was up 5 percent; that covers 532 papers.

I haven’t looked at them all yet but the New York Times is one of the clear winners, aided by its addition of digital subscriptions and the changes in the reporting, up 73 percent for daily to 1,586,757 and up 50 percent for Sunday to 2,003,247. Its total average digital daily circulation for 807,026; 737,408 on Sunday. More nitty-gritty later.

In the meantime, here are ABC’s charts for the top 25 U.S. dailies, Sunday papers and the ranking for those with digital editions who participated in Audience-Fax, the ABC service for measuring bundled circulation.

We’ll be talking with leaders in tech, media and investing about the changing publishing landscape at paidContent 2012: At The Crossroads, May 23, at The TimesCenter in New York. Join us.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock user [Irina Fischer].

More Steep Declines In Newspaper Circ: FAS-FAX

David Kaplan — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:53:00 +0000

U.S. newspapers’ circulation experienced across the board declines over the last six months, falling 3.6 percent collectively, according to the FAS-FAX report released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Reuters reported. As we said last November, when the last FAS-FAX was issued, print circulation for dailies slipped 2.5 percent over the previous six month period, indicating that the sputtering economy, along with readers continuing migration away from print and towards the web is taking a heavier toll on the industry.

– Even for 500 newspapers included in the ABC report that didn’t see declines, such as Gannett’s (NYSE: GCI) USA Today and News Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) Wall Street Journal, all reported paltry increases of about 1 percent each.

– Weekday circ at The New York Times dropped 3.85 percent, while Tribune Co.’s Los Angeles Times fell 5.13 percent.

– Sunday circulation dropped 4.6 percent overall.

Print Circ Continues Overall Decline; Audience-FAX Launches To Track Combined Print/Online Reach

David Kaplan — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 04:10:00 +0000

The semi-annual FAS-FAX report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations came out today with the now-routine drops in circulation and some unexpected increases. At the same time, ABC, Scarborough Research and the Newspaper Association of America took another step in the direction of quantifying overall newspaper audience online and in print with the launch of Audience-FAX.

Print: Overall, print circulation for dailies dipped 2.5 percent during the six months ending Sept. 30 while Sunday papers dropped 3.5 percent. Some drops were intentional as the New York Times (NYSE: NYT) and other cut back on less valuable circulation or raised prices knowing it would result in some decline. A small number of papers did manage to see a slight rise in circulation, including USA Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Houston Chronicle and The St. Petersburg Times. E&P has the details.

Online: Audience-FAX integrates newspaper circulation numbers, readership rates and online audience visits with its U.S. media statements. The joint effort of ABC, Scarnborough and the NAA also incorporates some online data from Nielsen//NetRatings, comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) Inc. and Omniture; 206 papers are participating in the launch. The free database hosted by Scarborough generates a variety of custom reports; it requires registration.Release