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Plain Dealer Circulation Continues Downward Slide
Submitted by Leader Staff on October 26, 2009 - 2:09pm. BusinessBusiness & TechnologyCleveland/Cuyahoga CountyConsumer NewsLocal NewsNewsU.S. Business
On Monday morning the Audit Bureau of Circulations released the latest figures for the six months ending in September 2009, and they're not pretty. Circulation at many of the country's largest newspapers continued a downward slide. In Cleveland, The Plain Dealer experienced a 11.2 percent reduction in daily circulation and was down 4.9 percent for Sunday circulation.

Nationwide, of the 379 newspapers that file with the organization, the average daily circulation was down 10.6 percent at 30,395,652 and Sunday circulation for 562 reporting papers was down 7.4 percent at 40,012,253. This marks one of the most severe drops in overall circulation.

At the PD, daily circulation now stands at 217,180 daily and Sunday circulation is now at 390,636. According to Editor & Publisher, the PD is now No. 16 on the list of the country's top 25 newspapers according to daily circulation, just barely inching ahead of No. 17's Detroit Free Press.

It sounds like additional job cuts are more inevitable than ever.

Personally, this is a great thing- especially since I'm an Internet marketing consultant here in Cleveland I think we should really cut back on printing stuff like phone books and newspapers. Can you imagine the amount of trees we would save?!?!?!?

The content is available free and more timely on Cleveland.com.

Really the best thing the PD is good for is for collecting purposes (such as "Cavs win Championship") and the Best Buy catalog every Sunday.

The rest is on Cleveland.com.

As someone who has always dreamed of being a sportswriter, I hate this.

LOL

ctrl P works just the same for me when I really really need to print something out.

Most of the catalogs are going to direct mail now... it's saving the post office's butt and companies like red plum are getting a little boost in their dollars however this is short term for them because eventually everyone will quickly find out you can search for a coupon on your smart phone and use it in the store I do it all the time lol

why? I think a lot of people would like that you can be interactive with your readers with blogs.

Note that newspapers are laying people off.

I prefer reading the PD print edition vs. cleveland.com. Something about sitting down with some coffee, maybe breakfast and reading the paper in the morning that just sets me off on the right foot each day.

A trend with no end.

Large U.S. papers like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Rocky Mountain News have gone strictly on-line... no hard copies. That will continue.
Even I rarely buy newspapers anymore... I read 'em for free on the 'Net. At the newspaper I used to work for more than 10 years, circulation is down from about 20,000 readers in 2002 to under 10,000 (hence the "used to work" part of that hahaha).
Newspapers are hellaciously expensive to produce (newsprint cost is high) and cost a ton to distribute.

Add to that, there are so many more options for advertiseres these days, and the instant news factor of the Internet.
Young people aren't reading the paper like they used to and that's not going to change.
We are closing in on the end of an era that lasted for centuries.


DeepThreat: sportswriters will always be needed, it's simply that the means of getting the words out there are changing. Don't give up if you're dreamin', but unless you get really lucky at it (as in getting your foot in the door for example as a college intern at a large paper), be prepared to not make a lot of money at it.

My 76 year old mom and 83 year old Aunt read the newspaper on a daily basis. Neither has, nor wants a computer.

About the only time I read a paper is if I am eating lunch by myself and want something to occupy myself with while I eat.

I have a feling that newspapers, in their printed form, have about 10 years tops left. As the pre-internet generation ages and passes on, the readership and subscriber base for newspapers will continue to dwindle.

About the only reason for someone to buy a Sunday paper is the coupons ..... but I can never remember coupons when I hit the store ..... so why even bother?

I read the front page daily for a lot of newspapers.

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/

don't EVER get in the journalism business, unless....

1) you want to see the rest of your friends make more than you, especially schoolteachers;
2) you want to scrape for money the rest of your life;
3) you want to wind up answering the phone all day and talking to retirees in Florida that have nothing better to do than ask "why didn't my paper come?"
4) you want to go to grad school and use your writing talent in a higher-paying field
5) you want to see a friend at Starbucks and ask him his pay and find out it's almost as much as yours
6) you want to see the garbageman that picks up your trash and find out that he makes $80,000 a year without a college degree...
7) you want to live at home with your parents to save money while the rest of your friends that are in finance (KeyCorp for instance) have their own apartments...

yeah, i'm a bit cynical about the whole thing, and the worst part is that I have nobody to blame but myself. when I got into journalism in HS, the 9/11 tragedy hadn't happened and the economy was still good.

It sucks. At one time I wanted to be a car designer but had to put my dreams on hold...so I SETTLED for journalism.

Whatever you do in life, don't SETTLE for something you like--even love--doing, if it can't pay the bills or you can't go out and have fun without watching how much to drink because you're always watching your wallet. Those that can go out to the bar *probably* have enough disposable income, so it won't bother them.

If you've got writing talent, find a job that pays well (nursing) and do your writing on the side as a hobby. Or you'll wind up in a newspaper and having to work a second job (freelancing or pizza delivery) to stay afloat.

More proof that going to college doesn't guarantee you a good job.

I am not worried about the trees, but newspapers are mostly vehicles for advertising.

I quit taking the local paper 20 years ago.

I do pick up the Sunday paper every week.

We take the Sunday edition of The Arizona Republic. I was taking the daily delivery up until a month ago - and probably still would still be if their customer service department didn't suck.

Here is a breakdown of the nation's top 25, it is pretty much the same all over:

The top 25 U.S. newspapers by average weekday and Sunday circulation from April through September. The percentage changes are from the same six-month span last year.

1. The Wall Street Journal — 2,024,269 weekday (up 0.6 percent);
no Sunday edition.

2. USA Today — 1,900,116 weekday (down 17.2 percent);
no Sunday edition.

3. The New York Times — 927,851 weekday (down 7.3 percent);
1,400,302 Sunday (down 2.7 percent).

4. Los Angeles Times — 657,467 weekday (down 11.1 percent);
983,702 Sunday (down 6.8 percent).

5. The Washington Post — 582,844 weekday (down 6.4 percent);
822,208 Sunday (down 5.1 percent).

6. Daily News of New York — 544,167 weekday (down 14 percent);
603,671 Sunday (down 10.5 percent).

7. New York Post — 508,042 weekday (down 18.8 percent);
343,361 Sunday (down 11.1 percent).

8. Chicago Tribune — 465,892 weekday (down 9.7 percent);
803,220 Sunday (down 7.1 percent).

9. Houston Chronicle — 384,419 weekday (down 14.2 percent);
547,387 Sunday (down 6.3 percent).

10. The Philadelphia Inquirer — 361,480 weekday;
499,140 Sunday (down 10.3 percent).
[ The Audit Bureau says the year-ago daily figures are not comparable because the Inquirer’s numbers now are combined with those of the Philadelphia Daily News, which the Inquirer now counts as an edition of the same newspaper. The Daily News doesn’t have a Sunday edition.]

11. Newsday of Long Island, N.Y. — 357,124 weekday (down 5.4 percent); 413,830 Sunday (down 4.6 percent).

12. The Denver Post — 340,949 weekday;
495,485 Sunday (down 9.2 percent).
[The year-ago weekday numbers are not comparable because subscribers of the now-closed Rocky Mountain News have been transferred to the Post. The news had no Sunday edition.]

13. The Arizona Republic of Phoenix — 316,874 weekday (down 12.3 percent);
458,992 Sunday (down 0.9 percent).

14. Star Tribune of Minneapolis — 304,543 weekday (down 5.5 percent); 477,562 Sunday (down 8.3 percent).

15. Chicago Sun-Times — 275,641 weekday (down 12 percent);
251,260 Sunday (down 1.8 percent).

16. The Plain Dealer of Cleveland — 271,180 weekday (down 11.2 percent); 390,636 Sunday (down 5 percent).

17. Detroit Free Press — 269,729 weekday (down 9.6 percent),
560,188 Sunday (down 7.5 percent).

18. Boston Globe — 264,105 weekday (down 18.5 percent);
418,529 Sunday (down 16.9 percent).

19. The Dallas Morning News — 263,810 weekday (down 22.2 percent); 390,520 Sunday (down 19.3 percent).

20. The Seattle Times — 263,588 weekday;
359,672 Sunday (down 5.9 percent).
[The year-ago weekday figures are not comparable because the now-closed Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s subscriptions were transferred to the Times.]

21. San Francisco Chronicle — 251,782 weekday (down 25.8 percent); 306,705 Sunday (down 23 percent).

22. The Oregonian of Portland — 249,163 weekday (down 12.1 percent); 303,412 Sunday (down 12 percent).

23. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. — 246,006 weekday (down 22.2 percent);
371,060 Sunday (down 18.6 percent).

24. The San Diego Union-Tribune — 242,705 weekday (down 10.1 percent); 309,571 Sunday (down 9.6 percent).

25. St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times — 240,147 weekday (down 10.7 percent); 370,050 Sunday (down 5.2 percent).

Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2009/oct/27/na12fcpapercirclist27/

[qoute]I think we should really cut back on printing stuff like phone books and newspapers. Can you imagine the amount of trees we would save?!?!?!?

---

I'm definitely for the phone books thing. I get like 10-12 phone books every year, and use one maybe once every 2 year. My cell phone and google work just as well, and often faster for business lookups.

I agree ... I'm not sure I've touched a phone book in years.

Well wait, I usually pick it up to toss it into the recycle bin after they throw that big yellow brick in my driveway. We also have a local "free" newspaper that keeps littering up my front yard with issues.

yeah,, what the hell is up with that.. each year we get at least 6 white pages and then we get a couple of different Yellow Pages..

Here's the funny thing, I never use them,, They sit on a shelf and collect dust.
.

I almost think they do it to boost "readership" ... both the phonebook companies and local newspapers. Print off a few thousand copies, give it out as "free", litter the driveways of everyone in the neighborhood ... and then claim to advertisers that you have a large readership.

Ad revenue. Generates serious bucks, especially when a paper has the printing capabilities.