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AP: Daily circulation falls at major U.S. papers

Circulation declines accelerated at major U.S. newspapers for the six-month period ending in September, according to figures released Monday, in the latest sign of struggle for an industry that is continually grappling with changing reader habits.

Average paid circulation fell 2.8 percent on weekdays and 3.4 percent on Sundays, the Newspaper Association of America reported, an even worse showing than the last time figures were released in May. Then, the NAA said average weekday circulation fell 2.5 percent in the six months ending in March, while Sunday circulation fell 3.1 percent.

The figures are based on biannual publishers' statements delivered to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, a publishing industry group, and only include figures for newspapers that reported to the Audit Bureau for both comparable periods. For the latest period, 770 newspapers reported comparable weekday figures and 619 for Sunday figures.

The declines tended to be largest at major metropolitan dailies, while smaller papers and the two largest nationally circulated papers fared somewhat better. The Los Angeles Times posted the largest decline among a top newspaper — 8 percent — as it continued a program begun last year to sharply reduce third-party circulation such as copies distributed in hotels and schools, which advertisers generally value less than individually paid copies.

Overall U.S. newspaper circulation has been declining steadily on an annual basis since 1987, according to broader figures compiled by the NAA, as newspapers face increasing competition for readers' time from other media such as cable TV and the Internet.

The NAA's annual figures, which are derived from a larger base of newspapers than those reporting biannually to the Audit Bureau, show that average weekday circulation declined 4 percent over the five-year period ending in 2005, while Sunday circulation fell 6.5 percent, according to John Murray, the NAA's vice president of circulation marketing.

With print newspaper circulation declining and more people going to the Internet for news, newspapers have been putting more emphasis on their Web site operations, which are growing rapidly but still make up a relatively minuscule proportion of their overall revenues.

Gannett Co.'s USA Today remained the top-selling newspaper in the country during the six-month period with average paid circulation of 2,269,509, down 1.3 percent from the comparable period a year earlier.
The Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones & Co., kept its No. 2 spot at 2,043,235, down 1.9 percent. The New York Times was next with 1,086,798, down 3.5 percent, and the Los Angeles Times, published by Tribune Co., fell 8 percent to 775,766.

New York's two fiercely competitive tabloids were the only papers in the top 20 to win circulation gains in the period. The New York Post's circulation jumped 5.1 percent to 704,011, edging ahead of its longtime rival the New York Daily News, owned by the real estate developer Mortimer Zuckerman, which had a gain of 1 percent to 693,382.

The New York Post said it was the first time in its history that it had sprung ahead of both the Daily News and the Washington Post.

The New York Post, which charges 25 cents a copy on weekdays versus 50 cents for the Daily News, is part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., a major media conglomerate that also owns the Twentieth Century Fox movie studio, the Fox network and MySpace.com.

Among other major newspapers, The Washington Post had a 3.3 percent decline to 656,297; the Chicago Tribune fell 1.7 percent to 576,132; and the Houston Chronicle, owned by Hearst Corp., fell 3.7 percent to 508,097.
Newsday, a Long Island-based paper owned by Tribune, reported a 5 percent decline compared with a year ago to 410,579. This summer Newsday completed a cycle of four six-month audits as part of a censure from the Audit Bureau for previously misstating circulation figures.

Two other newspapers that had also been punished for previous circulation misstatements, The Dallas Morning News and the Chicago Sun-Times, are still undergoing the additional audits required by the Audit Bureau and did not report circulation figures for this period.

Separately, the Newspaper Association of America also reported that, according to its analysis of online traffic data from Nielsen/NetRatings, nearly 57 million people visited newspaper Web sites in the third quarter, up 24 percent from the same period a year ago. That figure made up 37 percent of all Internet users.