Post 9-11 Circulation Growth Doesn’t Last for L.A. Papers
By CLAUDIA PESCHIUTTA
Staff Reporter
Whatever circulation gains the Sept. 11 attacks and subsequent war on terrorism generated for local newspapers were short-lived and too small to reverse the continuing decline in readership suffered by most L.A. dailies.
The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News and many of the smaller dailies suffered circulation decreases in the six-month period ended March 31, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. But there were smaller losses this time around, which indicates the papers may have held on to some of the new readers they attracted in the days following the terrorist attacks.
After Sept. 11, people “turned to newspapers because they valued the depth of coverage,” said Cynthia Rawitch, chairwoman of the journalism department at California State University, Northridge. “My guess is that non-traditional readers, when they no longer needed that amount or type of coverage, went back to their normal activity … which is getting their information from television news.”
The Los Angeles Times’ average daily circulation, including Saturday, fell 5.3 percent, to 985,798 from 1,040,670 for the like period a year ago. The good news for the Tribune Co.-owned paper is that Sunday circulation rose slightly, to 1,394,544 from 1,385,455. The increase was due, in part, to an advertising campaign promoting Sunday-only subscriptions.
(Most newspapers have significantly higher circulation on Sundays than on weekdays. The Sunday paper can account for half of a large metropolitan daily’s revenues because of the large number of ads that the weekend paper can carry.)
Times officials did not return calls for comment.
The Times was not the only major daily to lose readers. USA Today remained the nation’s No. 1 newspaper, but reported a 3.4 percent year-to-year drop in circulation.
Overall, the newspaper industry saw a decline in both weekday and Sunday circulation over the six months ended March 31, which suggests that the spike from Sept. 11 was “truly a spike,” said John Morton, president of newspaper consulting firm Morton Research Inc.
“The fundamental circulation problem that the newspaper industry has is that their readers are dying off faster than they’re being added to,” he said. “Apparently, (people) are not as interested in detailed news.”
Times benefits
As the only national daily in the area, the Los Angeles Times was best positioned to make the most of the increased demand for international news.
“That kind of news coverage is right up (the Times’) alley,” said Jack Klunder, vice president of circulation for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group (LANG), which includes the Daily News. “We cover it well but I’m not sure our readers buy our papers for that kind of news coverage.”
The Daily News and other papers in the MediaNews Group Inc.-owned group saw major declines in circulation compared with the like year-earlier period due in large part to increases in single-copy price and home delivery rates that took effect last spring.
But the effect of the price hikes appears to be flattening out. The bulk of the losses were taken in the six-month period ended Sept. 30 and many of the LANG papers saw much smaller declines in the latest reporting period.
The Daily News saw Monday through Friday circulation drop 9.4 percent to 177,170, from 178,156 in the six months ended Sept. 30 and 195,391 in the period prior to that. The Pasadena Star-News and the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, also part of LANG, were down more than 8 percent year-to-year but fairly flat in the latter half of the year.
Some positive signs
There were some signs of a turnaround in the group. The Whittier Daily News, which reported a 2.6 percent dip in weekday circulation year-to-year, enjoyed nearly a 2 percent increase over the six-month period ended Sept. 30. The Star-News saw a 4 percent jump, to 37,912, in its Sunday circulation during the last six month period.
“(Circulation) doesn’t come back right away. It takes a while,” Klunder said. “We’re starting to see gains now as we enter into the new cycle.”
All the papers in the group which includes the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Redlands Daily Facts, and San Bernardino County Sun met their circulation goals, according to Klunder.
The post-Sept. 11 boost was felt in the six-month period ended Sept. 30, but didn’t carry over into this latest reporting period, Klunder said. Infrequent buyers soon disappeared, as they did after the burst of initial interest in the Gulf War.
The bright spot for L.A. newspapers, once again, was Spanish-language daily La Opinion. The paper, in which Tribune has a 50 percent stake, continued its circulation increase, jumping 9.1 percent to 128,495 from 117,817 in the like year-earlier period. The paper has focused on areas with strong Hispanic population growth, such as Santa Clarita, East L.A. and North Orange County.
But La Opinion only has 5,000 subscribers who receive home delivery. “The Hispanic community is not used to receiving newspaper delivery to their home,” said Director of Circulation Bob Karcher. “Most newspapers throughout Latin America do not offer delivery.”
