Below The Beltway

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The Slow, Painful Death Of The Dead Tree Media

by Doug Mataconis @ 12:48 pm on November 5, 2007.

The latest newspaper circulation figures are out and they’re not good at all:

NEW YORK The Audit Bureau of Circulations released circulation numbers for more than 700 daily newspapers this morning for the six-month period ending September 2007. Of the top 25 papers in daily circulation (see chart, separate story), only four showed gains.

According to an analysis of ABC figures, for 538 daily U.S. newspapers, circulation declined 2.5% to 40,689,617. For 609 papers that filed on Sunday, overall circulation dropped 3.5% to 46,771,486. The percentages are based on comparisons from the same period a year ago.

For The New York Times, daily circulation fell 4.51% to 1,037,828 and Sunday plunged 7.59% to 1,500,394, at least partly due to a price increase.

Daily circulation at The Washington Post was down 3.2% to 635,087 and Sunday was down 3.9% to 894,428.

Daily circulation at The Boston Globe tumbled 6.6% to 360,695 and Sunday fell about the same, 6.5% to 548,906.

The Wall Street Journal was down 1.53% to 2,011,882 daily but USA Today posted a gain of 1% to 2,293,137.

The New York Post slipped this period with daily circ down 5.2% to 667,119 and Sunday fell 5% to 405,486. New York’s Daily News also showed declines in daily circ down 1.7% to 681,415 while Sunday decreased 6.8% to 726,305.

At the Chicago Tribune, daily circulation slipped 2.9% to 559,404 and Sunday fell 2% to 917,868.

Its sister publication, the Los Angeles Times, grew slightly up 0.5% to 779,682, while Sunday fell 5.1% to 1,112,165.

And it just goes on from there. And it would look even worse if you went back 5, 10, 15, or 30 years. Newspapers have faced three great challenges. First was radio, then television, especially in the 24 hour news variety. And, now, the Internet and the ability of readers to get information directly from the source rather than having it interpreted and force-fed to them.

These are numbers that are never going to be reversed. Oh, print newspapers will still be around for awhile, but half a century from now, if not sooner, our children and grandchildren will wonder why we ever bothered with something as silly as a 5 pound brick called The Sunday New York Times.