Wednesday, April 25, 2007

PD among those showing circulation gains

Newspapers that will show daily circulation declines of 5 percent or more in next week's ABC report include the San Jose Mercury News, Miami Herald, Dallas Morning News, San Diego Union-Tribune, Star Ledger, Orange County Register, Austin American-Statesmen, and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Gaining circulation are the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Indianapolis Star, Charlotte Observer, Denver Post, San Antonio Express-News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Poynter's St. Petersburg Times,and the Oklahoman.

Gary Pruitt, CEO of McClatchy, explained during a Q1 earnings call on Tuesday (reported in an earlier blog post) that his company will continue to experience declines in circulation. (It was not too long ago that McClatchy could boast of constant circ gains). To give a taste of what is to come, during Q1, McClatchy executives said daily circulation fell 3.6% and Sunday dropped 3.9%.

The Indianapolis Star should be one of the biggest metro gainers. Daily circulation (Monday-Friday) rose 2.4% to 261,405 copies and Sunday was up 2% to 354,312 copies, according to Bryan Sturgeon, vice president of circulation at the Indy Star. The paper benefited when the Colts made (and won) the Super Bowl and by adding Thursday editions to Sunday-only subscriptions.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press grew its daily circulation (Monday-Friday) 0.3% to 191,736. Sunday is virtually flat up 0.1% to 251,865. Also encouraging: the paper attributed the increases to gains made in home-delivered copies.

Click on the headline to read the full report in Editor & Publisher.

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