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The Audit Bureau of Circulation released its Fas Fax data today, giving newspaper ombudsmen everywhere a topic for tomorrow's column. Too bad everyone's going to write largely the same story: Newspaper circulation is down. Circulation is down 2.6 percent across all major US daily newspapers, with the Trib faring worse than other papers, falling 2.9 percent over the last six months to a paid weekday circulation of 559,404. That makes the Trib the eighth biggest paper in America, behind USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the LA Times, the New York Daily News, the New York Post and the Washington Post. The Sun-Times doesn't get to report circulation because it's still being punished for false circulation info from a few years ago.
Not every newspaper's circulation was down. Some smaller papers' readership grew, including Aurora's Beacon News, whose circulation increased 7.49 percent to 27,563. Under the Trib umbrella, Hoy's circulation increased 40 percent, and RedEye's increased 33.
While daily paid circulation is obviously important, it doesn't take into account how many non-subscribers read newspapers' websites.
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I admit I am this close to canceling my Trib subscription and getting NYT. I subscribe because I still do have that early morning habit of making some coffee, eating breakfast, and reading the paper. But the Trib's content is getting less and less interesting ... so I think it's time to jump ship.
Which is too bad, because it's still my favorite local MSM read, but it just ain't cutting it for me anymore.
You have a physical subscription to a newspaper? OMG, grandpa time!
I'm only half joking.
i want numbers on how many people get the redeye just for sudoku.
I KNOW, I KNOW!
There's just something about physically reading the paper first thing A.M. computers can't give me. Of course I read most of the Trib's pertinent info via RSS before even eating, so that's another reason I'm tired of them.
O sure Shannon, why don't you try to figure out how to worm outta the glaring correlation between the growing level of stupidity and the Red Eye and Red Eye like publications. And I only see a few people engaged in sudoku and only during the ride home, but in the morning tons are reading the Red Eye. Actually when I see people doing Sudoku, the paper is always well worn, which means they got their Stupid Eye "news" first!
Make the switch Kevin. If not for just for the entertainment section alone. And the carrier is the same, (tribune) so I can guarantee, you will get extra Tribunes along with the New York Times. Actually I can always count on a Tribune on Sundays and some times a Suntimes to boot.
I'm another Trib subscriber - and it's more for the habit of reading the paper at breakfast before having to go stare at a monitor all day.
I wonder if they count the two Hoy they chuck into my yard every Saturday in part of their circulation increase. Pretty much all I use it for is kindling for my Grill.
Spook -
Would you prefer people read nothing at all, or read the RedEye? It's nice to see people take an interest in something, even if it's not 'hard news' in the views of people that think the NYT is the be all end all to newspapers. I'm liberal, but their slant is incredibly annoying.
Tankboy, Tony, et al:
Um, if the Trib ain't cutting it for ya, there is another 'real' daily newspaper in this town, and while the content can infuriate at times, it certainly isn't uninteresting...
And it's a bit of a stretch to say that Red Eye and Hoy's circulation are up, since in order to increase their circulation, Mother Tribune just prints more copies. Gee, hasn't TribCo gotten in trouble once already for playing with circulation stats???
Ah, I'm with ya, I enjoy reading the paper at breakfast before I site down to another all-day-at-the-monitor job.
But, what pisses me off is the vending boxes for tribune and sun times are almost always empty. If you're not gonna fill it up, get rid of the box and stop teasing us. I'm sick of having to go into $tarbuck$ just to buy a paper!
Been Hecht-
The circulation numbers for RedEye are legit, and were raised due to the low number of returns that come back each day. The north side in particular generally 'sells out' many of their boxes.
Hoy's distribution figures have certainly increased, but from what I've seen, the returns haven't gone down at all.
Finally, it was Newsday and the NY based Hoy that got into trouble with circ numbers. Newsday and Chicago Tribune are like apples and oranges when it comes to accounting and auditing.
i also still subscribe to the tribune, then i always pick up a suntimes at some point (for their sports). Red Eye is fine to read on a commute, but i'd never read it as my sole source of information.
i do like the NYT though.
Tony B
Good questing
And I'll indulged your liberalism if you will indulged my progressivism, which means I need to go deeper in making larger connections with what’s going on over all.
No I wouldn't prefer that folks read “nothing at all”. My beef is how complacent and silent liberals have become with the rise in Red Eye Publications nation wide and other packaged media commodities like reality TV. The problem is good folks are running around with blinders on compartmentalizing this and that, instead of making important connections. Honestly is their any surprise that Bush was able to get elected twice during a time when Red Eye style publicans are becoming major new sources? This is also a time when it was reported (in the NYT) that Americans are reading less novels than ever before!
Now if you agree with a Spook on this, then the question becomes, what is the liberal response? I see it as nothing but denial, just like Shannon who equivocates, by given this disturbing news a dances card, by saying "i want numbers on how many people get the redeye just for sudoku", please, as if its not about the dumbing down of America during these very perilous times, but the popularity of a game.
Feel me?
Now I don’t think the NYT is the end all of news papers, but it’s a great supplement as
a solid publication that addresses word national and local issues seriously and with integrity. Now as a progressive I find that the NYT from time to time caters to Nero, but not nearly as bad as Public Radio. So what you find incredibly annoying is beyond me.