Subscriber leaks persist at newspapers; Dailies lose 941,470 paying customers; circ rises for just six of biggest players.

Advertising Age, May, 2007 by IVES, NAT

Byline: NAT IVES

nives@adage.com

The latest newspaper-circulation results released last week again show an industry slowly but steadily losing paying readers. Although subscriber churn was down and the paid-circulation decline was smaller than it was last time around, the picture isn't getting much prettier.

For the six months ended March 31, the average weekday circulation of all 745 newspapers reporting for comparable periods was 44,961,066, down 2.1% from the equivalent period a year earlier, according to a Newspaper Association of America analysis of figures compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. That's a loss of 941,470 paying customers.

The last period, covering the six months ended Sept. 30, 2006, showed a slightly...

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