The Death of the Newspaper

It was recently pointed out that a large number of people are allowing their newspaper subscriptions expire rather than calling up the offices of their paper. Newspapers are now the province of the old, and the trend is showing that newspaper circulations continue to plummet unabated.

This excerpt of a latest piece from the Editors & Publishers pretty much sums up what's happening in the print media industry by noting how newspaper circulations have been faring over the years:

The following circulation compares the new data to the same period a year ago. Daily circulation is the Monday-through-Friday average.

-- The New York Times lost more than 150,000 copies on Sunday. Circulation on that day fell a whopping 9.2% to 1,476,400. The paper's daily circulation declined 3.8% to 1,077,256.

According to New York Times spokeswoman Diane McNulty, the company had budgeted for the declines in Sunday and daily circulation. Two-thirds of the Sunday loss stemmed from the elimination of bonus days and third-party bulk copies. Also: the paper had a single copy and home delivery price increase in July. The paper also focused on growing "highly profitable circulation," she noted.

-- At The Washington Post, daily circulation decreased 3.5% to 673,180 and Sunday dropped 4.3% to 890,163.

-- Meanwhile, daily circulation at The Wall Street Journal grew a fraction of a percent, up 0.3% to 2,069,463 copies. At USA Today, circulation inched up 0.27%* to 2,284,219. (Correction: the original version of this story said USA Today's daily circulation was up 2.7%.)

-- The New York Post lost over 3% daily and more than 8% on Sunday.

-- Daily circulation at The Orange County Register plunged 11.9% to 250,724 and Sunday fell 5.3% to 311,982.

-- In Los Angeles, the Times lost more than 40,000 daily copies. Daily circulation there was down 5.1% to 773,884. Sunday declined 6.0% to 1,101,981.

-- The San Francisco Chronicle reported that daily circulation dropped 4.2% to 370,345, while Sunday dropped 3.0% to 424,603.

-- The Boston Globe's daily circulation fell 8.3% to 350,605. Sunday declined 6.4% to 525,959.

-- The Miami Herald reported daily circulation lost more than 11% with 240,223 copies while Sunday dropped 9% to 311,245.

-- Daily circulation at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution declined 8.5% to 326,907 while Sunday fell 5.0% to 497,149.