Outtakes already noted the overall circulation declines among the half-dozen largest daily papers in Arkansas (an average of 4.5 percent decline from last year), but wasn't expecting the bloodbath reflected in the latest nationwide Audit Bureau of Circulations report. It found that the 379 filing papers saw average daily circulation drop 10.6 percent in the past year. The number of Americans picking up newspapers is now at pre-WWII levels. (Web readership, at least, has increased since the '40s.)
One bright spot appeared to come out of Las Vegas, a town heretofore not exactly celebrated for its reading habits. The Las Vegas Review-Journal - the flagship paper of Stephens Media, which is owned by Little Rock's Stephens family - actually gained 6.56 percent, to 175,841 daily circulation.
That was the fourth-biggest percentage jump in the country, and the highest total increase of any paper not named The Wall Street Journal.
"We were pleased with the ABC report, of course," Stephens Media President Sherman Frederick told Outtakes via e-mail. "While it was a difficult report for American newspapers as a whole, there is still a great demand for good American journalism, be it in print or online."
But let's emphasize the "online" portion of that statement. Steve Coffeen, Stephens' director of corporate circulation, told Editor & Publisher that the Review-Journal actually shed subscribers, and that the increase owes to revised ABC accounting rules that now count the 20,000 or so paid subscribers to the electronic edition. Suddenly a circulation jump of 10,830 feels less like a triumph and more like that old sinking sensation.
Frederick, though, sees this as a fourth-straight strong circulation report, an indication of "a strong bond" between the paper and its customers. "From a broader perspective," he added, "what kind of CEO would I be if I didn't also tell you that our circulation figures also indicate Stephens Media puts out a damn fine newspaper?"
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