McClatchy shares fall as industry circulation figures drop
Sacramento Business Journal
Monday, November 5, 2007
Shares of The McClatchy Co. dropped more than 3.5 percent to a 52-week low in early-morning trading Monday, after new circulation numbers were released for the still-struggling newspaper industry.
The Sacramento-based company -- publisher of The Sacramento Bee, The Miami Herald and 29 other daily newspapers -- has been battling declining readership. like most newspapers, for the past few years.
Circulation at the newspaper's 20 largest newspapers fell 2.6 percent for the six-month period ending in September, according to an analysis of the 538 daily newspapers that reported figures.
Circulation figures for McClatchy's largest newspapers were not immediately released Monday.
McClatchy stock (NYSE: MNI) was down 60 cents to $15.75, a 64 percent drop from its 52-week high.
sacramento.bizjournals.com
...................................................
Friday, January 11, 2008
Circulation drops again at Post, NewsDenver Business Journal - by Mark Harden Denver Business Journal
The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News reported sharp declines in their paid circulation Friday, largely due to a cutback in their practice of distributing free or sharply discounted copies to boost sales numbers.
In publisher's statements for the two Denver daily newspapers released Friday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), covering April 1 through Sept. 30, 2007, the Post said it sold an average 225,391 copies each weekday during that period, down 12 percent from the average 255,935 weekday circulation it reported during the same period in 2006.
The News, meanwhile, said it sold an average of 225,227 copies each weekday during the six-month period of 2007, also down 12 percent from the 255,675 average reported a year before.
On Sundays, the Post -- which publishes Denver's only Sunday paper under an agreement with the News -- said it sold an average of 600,229 copies each Sunday during the April-September 2007 period, down 13.5 percent from the 694,053 reported during that period in 2006.
The News, which publishes Denver's only Saturday paper, said its Saturday paid circulation dropped 11 percent, to 490,741 in 2007 from 552,567 the year before.
The paid-circulation figures include both the print editions and several thousand "electronic editions" sold over their websites.
The numbers were almost identical to figures the two papers released via the ABC on Nov. 5 in preliminary "FAS-FAX" reports.
However, Friday's reports were the first time the two newspapers revealed the extent to which the steep declines in their circulation numbers were due to cutbacks in the practice of so-called "third party" sales at heavy discounts.
They included bulk sales to hotels for free delivery to guests as well as advertiser-sponsored copies delivered free to homes and at large public events.
ABC reports third-party sales under a category labeled "other paid circulation," which also includes newspapers distributed through education programs.
The new reports show that the Post reduced "other paid circulation" from an average of 117,923 copies on Sundays and 34,569 copies weekdays during 2006 to an average of 56,139 copies Sundays and 13,338 copies weekdays in 2007.
At the News, "other paid circulation" reportedly dropped from 79,209 copies Saturdays and 24,084 copies weekdays in 2006 to 14,690 Saturdays and 10,832 weekdays in 2007.
Like many newspapers around the country, the Post and News are cutting back on third-party sales, which many advertising buyers say they disregard as largely meaningless, and many publishers now see as overly expensive in the face of rising printing and distribution costs.
The Post and News have been jointly published since 2001 by the Denver Newspaper Agency (DNA) under a "joint operating agreement" to share business, circulation and advertising expenses. The two papers operate independent newsrooms.
Friday's reports are subject to audit by the ABC, a national agency established by advertisers to verify publishers' circulation claims.
Both newspapers also reported reductions in their deeply-discounted home-delivery subscriptions, which are largely a hangover from the days before their partnership when the dailies sold papers for almost nothing to boost circulation numbers.
The Post said its current subscriptions at between 25 percent and 50 percent of the basic rates declined from an average 13,433 weekdays in 2006 to 10,581 in 2007. But The Post boosted deeply discounted Sunday sales from 39,818 in 2006 to 44,023 in 2007.
The News said it reduced its deep discounts from 36,720 Saturdays and 13,993 weekdays in 2006 to 34,209 Saturdays and 9,536 weekdays in 2007.
But even leaving aside these cutbacks in third-party sales and deep discounts, both papers reported circulation drops.
Counting only paid sales at 50 percent or more of the basic price, the Post said it dropped 7 percent on Sundays, to an average of 493,939 copies, and 9 percent on weekdays, to 184,875.
The News reported a drop in paid sales at 50 percent or more of the basic rate of about half a percent Saturdays, to 430,667, and 7 percent weekdays, to an average of 197,774.
In response to these declining circulation numbers, the DNA has sought to draw attention to its "readership" number, including an estimate of all the people who read a "pass-through" copy of the two newspapers.
In the new ABC reports, the newspapers report a combined readership figure of 1.3 million at least once a week in their "newspaper-designated market": the seven-county Denver area.
But in recent interviews, several Denver-area media buyers for advertisers said the figure that most matters to them is paid circulation, and that readership estimates are unreliable.
In a new feature, the publishers' statements included detailed reports on the newspapers' website traffic, covering the month of September 2007.
The Post reported 2 million total unique visitors (individuals accessing the website at least once) and 13.7 million page views that month. The News cited 1.3 million total unique visitors and 12 million page views.
sacramento.bizjournals.com
.......................................
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Newspaper circulation slippage continuesBusiness First of Buffalo
Circulation at the nation's biggest newspapers dropped by an average of 2.6 percent in the latest six-month period and that trend was evident among Western New York dailies as well.
The Buffalo News was off 2 percent on Sundays to 262,507 from 267,922 from September 2006 through this past September and down 1.1 percent weekdays to 181,805 from 183,856. The largest area daily did show a 2 percent circulation gain on Saturdays to 185,248 from 181,479.
The Niagara Gazette saw sales decline 3.4 percent on Sundays to 33,894 from 35,109 and fall by 4.7 percent to Monday through Saturday to 17,972 from 18,874 in the same period.
The year-over-year figures, for the period that ended Sept. 30, comes from the Audit Bureau of Circulation.
With more readers defecting to the Internet, many newspapers are launching new measurement techniques that include online readership statistics.
sacramento.bizjournals.com |
