By Adam Kress Washington Business Journal
Published: 10-30-08
Dallas Morning News daily circulation down 9.3
Battered by declines in advertising and increased competition online daily newspapers are seeing a sharp drop in circulation.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations says average daily circulation was down 4.6 percent in the April-September period compared with last year. Last year’s drop was 2.6 percent among papers reporting comparable circulation totals.
The nation’s top two papers USA Today and The Wall Street Journal report flat circulation while The New York Times says circulation declined 3.6 percent.
Circulation dropped 1.9 percent at The Washington Post. The farthest fall among the top 25 papers was the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at 13.6 percent.
The Dallas Morning News reported its six-month circulation figures on Monday with statistics showing the paper’s overall circulation down about 9.3 percent in daily sales and 7.5 percent in Sunday sales for the period ending Sept. 30.
The Dallas Morning News is part of newspaper publishing giant A.H. Belo Corp. (NYSE: AHC) which also is based in Dallas.
The Dallas Morning News’ Sunday circulation hit 483841 during the most recent six-month period while its daily circulation reached 338933. The circulation for the period included an increase in home deliveries sold at 50 percent or more of the basic price of 8429 daily and 10401 for Sunday’s paper A.H. Belo said.
A.H. Belo said “While the total circulation represented a reduction of 9.3 daily and 7.5 Sunday the overall declines in circulation can be attributed to planned business initiatives specifically aimed at improving audience quality.
These include significantly reducing the number of copies sold at less than 50 of basic price elimination of all remaining bonus-day and third-party distribution and reductions in single-copy sales due primarily to planned price increases taken earlier this year. Without these initiatives circulation for the period would have been up.”
