The ugly truth (E&P circulation story)

E&P tracked circulation of major papers over the last four years. Not good:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003723373

 

Well, that's cheery reading.

 

and seeing's how we read it on-line, for free, no real shock

 

eeeeeee

 

Doesn't E&P know that newspapers count things like "readers" and "clicks" -- not circulation -- these days?

 

What if the print editions were free? I'm not sure whether or not that would make much of a difference. I'm just askin'

 

I wondered that myself. Would it actually increase readership? Which, in turn would help sale ads, right?

 

You mean E&P just discovered that newspaper circulation has been going in the dumper the past four to five years? I
'm shocked.

 

Someone has explained here before, not sure who, that advertisers value paid circulation way more than free distribution. Which kind of explains, in part, the gap between print ad revenues and Web site ad revenues for most newspaper operations.

Maybe it's something advertisers are going to have to get over.

 

If you give the paper away for free it cannot count toward circulation numbers...

What does it say that the two papers in the best shape are USA Today and the NY Post?

 

Short stories sell?