For the fifth straight year, America's biggest newspapers (especially the left-leaning ones) have experienced big drops in circulation.
The Audit Bureau of Circulation released its annual numbers today. Among the findings: Two of the three national newspapers (USA Today and the Wall Street Journal) gained circ while the New York Times fell 2 percent on weekdays and nearly three-and-a-half percent on Sundays.
The biggest loser was the Dallas Morning News which was off 14 percent on weekdays and 13 percent on Sundays. The Miami Herald lost 10 percent on Sundays and 5.5 percent on weekdays.
Let's imagine for a moment now what types of stories we'd be hearing about these bad numbers if liberal journalists applied the same standards to themselves as they do to Republican presidents.
Now that you're done laughing, let me say that I don't think that liberal bias is the sole reason for these drops. It's also old thinking. The proof is that some papers like the New York Post and the Indianapolis Star have gained circulation. It can be done in an age of mass alienation from mass media. (h/t Stephen Spruiell)
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Yes, but in an age of so many
Mon, 04/30/2007 - 10:00 ET by jondelwicheYes, but in an age of so many news choices, ditto for the TV evening news, it is so odd to see some of these outlets gleefully poking half of their potential customer base in the eye (the better educated, higher income half I would also suspect). Other businesses usually try cater to all its customers, so the media brought this on themselves.People in our area were stunned when the Mpls StarTribune resold this past year for about half of what it had sold for just a few years ago. Both of our metro papers have had major layoffs, so it has been ugly. P.S. I'd love data on-- evening TV news viewership : US population --from 20 or 30 years ago vs today.That must be a doozy, too.
I personally believe this is
Mon, 04/30/2007 - 10:41 ET by BeowulfI personally believe this is a problem with the far left in general. While the far right does indeed exist, it isn't as vocal or publicized as the far left. As the newsies experiencing drops in patronage are also far left, and the far left, while extremely loud, is still in the minority, they are losing circulation. The majority of their readers both disagree with the news source's position, and are tired of hearing seeing the said news source refuted and being caught sensationalizing, playing partisanship, and outright lying. People who actually have the ability to think for themselves will only take so much blatant bias before moving on.
The Closed Mind Builds Strong Barriers
This is not surprising to me
Mon, 04/30/2007 - 13:00 ET by Darth DutchThis is not surprising to me at all. There are so many more media outlet choices that people are not stuck with getting their news from primetime TV and newspapers like they were just a decade or so ago.
As a side note, I wonder how many people get their newspaper solely for coupons? I subscribe to the LA Times solely for that reason because we save more than it costs us for the paper and some of my friends do as well. I never read the newspaper and only occasionally go through the other ads.
I wonder if you subtracted those people (not a lot, I know), how much those numbers would change.
Dutch
However, The New York Times,
Mon, 04/30/2007 - 14:28 ET by dscottHowever, The New York Times, which usually experiences small gains, lost daily circulation, down 1.9% to 1,120,420 while Sunday fell 3.3% to 1,627,062. USA Today reported that daily circulation was up 0.2% to 2,278,022. As reported earlier, The Wall Street Journal also increased, up 0.6% to 2,062,312.
The New York Post soared past the New York Daily News. Daily circ at that paper jumped 7.6% to 724748 and Sunday increased 6.5% to 439,202. At the Daily News, weekday circ grew 1.3% to 718,174 while Sunday was down 2.4% to 775,543.
Looky, looky the NY Post continues to suck the life out of the NYT, awwwww. I wonder why that is Mr. Sulzberger? How does that make your captive investors feel? A little cheated? Maybe you can sell them on the idea write offs on capital losses are good for the bottom line???? You can't ascribe this to less people reading newspapers unless you want to advance the idea that you're losing old readers and while the NY Post is getting younger readers? Be careful, because that says to your investors that the NYT is locked into a declining market share for the forseeable future.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius
the idea write offs on capita
Mon, 04/30/2007 - 21:37 ET by dahliatraversthe idea write offs on capital losses are good for the bottom line
lol
And surely we can work in some depreciating.
NYT Circulation
Mon, 04/30/2007 - 18:53 ET by pocomocoIt will be a great day, indeed, when we can say adios to the Krugman’s, Rich’s and Dowd’s of a soon to be defunct NYT. Krugman can go back to spreading his failed economics theories to unsuspecting foreign countries, Rich can go back to reviewing gay Broadway stage plays, and Dowd can intensify her search for a man that isn’t there.
dysfunctional family
Mon, 04/30/2007 - 19:00 ET by RJHa! That is a pretty dysfunctional family over at the NYT, isn't it?