The latest newspaper circulation figures are out and, once again, there’s no good news for the dead-tree media:
The years-long decline in newspaper circulation continues to accelerate, with sales in the spring and summer falling almost 5 percent from the previous year, according to figures released Monday, deepening the financial strain on the industry.
The drop occurred nearly across the board during the six months that ended Sept. 30; weekday circulation for the largest metropolitan dailies fell from 1.9 percent for The Washington Post, to 13.6 percent for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, compared with the period a year earlier.
The figures, released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations based on reports filed by the individual papers, showed that circulation at The Houston Chronicle, The Boston Globe and The Star-Ledger of Newark fell more than 10 percent.
One of those papers, The Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest newspaper, is responding to the decline in circulation by cutting it’s staff by 40%.
Andrew Sullivan, meanwhile, makes this point about just how bad these circulation figures are:
These declines in circulation have come during one of the most riveting campaign stories in modern times. If the news of the last twelve months cannot sell papers, nothing can.
Interestingly, the death of the newspaper isn’t just an American phenomenon:
TOKYO, Oct. 24 — Due to a shrinking population and an expanding Internet, the decline and fall of newspapers in Japan is all but guaranteed.
“I am in a dying industry,” laments Kenichi Miyata, a senior editor and writer at the Asahi newspaper, a national daily with a circulation of 8 million. “Young people do not read newspapers, and our population is getting very old very rapidly.”
As I’ve noted several times before, I’ve gotten beyond the habit of reading a daily print newspaper and it looks like I’m not alone.
