Newspaper Circulation Falls 10%

Newspaper sales moved sharply lower this year, falling about 10 percent in the six months ended Sept. 30 compared with the same period last year, according to figures released on Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Circulation has been sliding since the early 1990s, but in the last few years, the pace of the decline has accelerated sharply. In the same six-month period a year ago, circulation fell at roughly half the rate. The decline has been attributed to the continued migration of readers to the Web, the deep recession, newspapers intentionally shedding unprofitable circulation and, in some cases, waning reader interest as budget cuts reduce the content of the papers. Among the nation's largest newspapers, the biggest decline was reported by The San Francisco Chronicle, whose weekday circulation, about 252,000, was down 25.8 percent. The Star-Ledger of Newark and The Dallas Morning News each fell more than 22 percent on weekdays, and about 19 percent on Sundays. Over all, the audit bureau said that of the hundreds of newspapers whose reports it had so far, weekday circulation was down 10.6 percent, and Sunday was down 7.5 percent. In the same period a year ago, both declines were under 5 percent, and even that was a marked acceleration from the previous years.