Newspaper circulation continues to decline

NEW YORK — Circulation fell broadly at major newspapers in the six-month period ending in March as the industry struggled with the impact of do-not-call rules, competition from other media and the migration of readers online.

Paid circulation declined more than 6 percent at three top newspapers — the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle, according to figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Among the top 20 papers, 12 others posted declines of at least 1.5 percent, and only four showed meager increases.

Newspaper circulation reached a recent peak in 1984 but has been declining steadily over the past decade as other forms of media compete for the attention of readers, including cable television and the Internet.

The Newspaper Association of America, a Vienna, Va.-based industry group, reported that average daily paid circulation declined 1.9 percent in the most recent six-month period for the 814 newspapers reporting comparable data to the Audit Bureau. Average Sunday circulation for the 643 newspapers reporting those figures fell 2.5 percent.

Both were wider than the declines of 0.9 percent in daily circulation and 1.5 percent in Sunday sales in the previous six months reported by the Audit Bureau, a circulation reporting group based in Schaumburg, Ill.

Gannett Co.’s USA Today remained the top-selling paper in the nation, with total paid circulation edging up 0.05 percent to 2,281,831. The Wall Street Journal fell 0.8 percent to 2,070,498. The New York Times rose 0.24 percent to 1,136,433, and the Los Angeles Times’s daily circulation, including Saturdays, fell 6.5 percent to 907,997.

Despite the long-term erosion in paid circulation, major newspaper companies have continued to produce profit gains in recent years as advertising — which makes up the bulk of newspapers’ revenues — has held up much better than circulation.

Federal do-not-call regulations, which fully went into effect early last year, were partly to blame for this period’s circulation decline. As recently as 2000, telemarketing accounted for 43.4 percent of all new newspaper subscribers, according to an NAA study, but that figure fell to 39.1 percent in 2002 and 30.9 percent last year.