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Newspapers: The New Endangered Species

By | June 4, 2009

Currently 21 newspapers are on a steady decline. After 20 years only four publications have increased their paid circulation. Two are national papers with well known marketing hooks: USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. The New York Post and Arizona Republic are also up around nine percent.

An explanation of growth. Much of Arizona’s growth can be attributed to the population growth. Look closely at the numbers and you’ll see in recent years circulation had slipped. But looking at the Arizona Republic today and you’ll find that it is working on the circulation numbers as hard as it can. Keeping those numbers up just isn’t as easy as it used to be.

It’s all about the Sunday edition. Papers focus their efforts on the Sunday edition – which is where the majority of ad revenue comes from.

“Every Sunday in the paper, in this Super Sunday timeframe that we’ve been working on, we’ve made it special – to give the customer something different, whether it’s a special package from the news  content side, or whether is was a special promotion we worked on with an advertiser,” said John Zidich, president and publisher of the Arizona Republic.

“Were basically looking at the cost-analysis of every unit of circulation.”

So the Republic has managed to squeeze out a narrow circulation increase as other publications continue to struggle.

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