The Democrat and Chronicle is moving fewer copies of its print paper, but more people are accessing its content digitally.
That’s what the numbers from the latest Alliance for Audited Media (formerly the Audit Bureau of Circulations) show. On a general, national basis, newspaper circulation is down, but digital products account for an increasingly greater portion of the circulation. So the D and C’s print decrease and digital increase are in line with national trends.
The Alliance for Audited Media cautions against using this period’s data to make direct comparisons with past figures. In a blog post, it notes that publishers have changed the way they market and distribute products, which affects the counts. And the organization has also changed its reporting criteria over the years.
That said, between its April 2007 report and the recent report, the D and C has seen a 34 percent decrease in average Monday through Friday circulation. In April 2007, the D and C reported that circulation as 154,599. In the recent report, that figure, which includes digital editions, dropped to 101,885.
Total Sunday circulation has decreased by about 33 percent. Total Sunday circulation was 209,427 in April 2007 and 140,483 in the April 30 report.
The D and C has touted its digital gains. In an article published yesterday, it says that the use of the digital products by subscribers has increased by 21 percent a month since the company instituted its paywall last May. The measurement is actually a little confusing and complicated. But in September 2012, digital circulation amounted to 3,457 subscriptions or registrations for digital products. In the recent report, that number has increased to 5,577.
This article appears in May 1-7, 2013.
D&C circulation numbers by themselves, whether for print or digital editions, are in the end uninformative. Let’s see some revenue numbers boys. What are your monthly earnings on the print edition over the past five years (realizing that you whacked your loyal print subscribers with a MASSIVE rate hike last year)? What about print edition advertising revenues for the same period? And what were the same numbers for you digital edition for say the past 12 months?
If you’re making more money or at least holding your own then your business plan was apparently correct. If not, maybe it’s time to stop waving around a bunch of useless stats and start re-examining your assumptions.
No matter the format, the quality of the news coverage has declined appreciably in the last year plus. That’s why I unsubscribed. Very little news left between the ads. Very little local coverage at all. Are there but two or three writers left?