U.S. newspapers' average circulation dips 0.7%

• More readers flock to digital platforms
• %27Wall Street Journal%27 has highest circulation%2C followed by %27New York Times%2C%27 USA TODAY
• AAM says direct paper comparisons are difficult because digital delivery models vary

U.S. newspapers continue to lose readers, but digital subscription growth is muddling the task of counting circulation, says industry circulation tracker Alliance for Audited Media in its latest six-month report.

Average daily circulation slipped 0.7% for the six months ending March 31 vs. the period a year ago for the 593 U.S. newspapers reporting comparable averages for print and digital subscriptions, says AAM. Sunday circulation for the 519 newspapers reporting comparable data was down 1.4%. The report is issued every six months and is widely accepted as the standard for the newspaper industry.

Four of the 10 largest newspapers in average circulation — USA TODAY, New York Daily News, New York Post and The Washington Post — reported declines.

The 7.9% decline at USA TODAY — to 1.67 million — allowed it to be overtaken as the second-largest newspaper by TheNew York Times, which reported a 17.6% increase to 1.87 million.

The nation's largest newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, also reported a circulation increase — 12.3% to 2.38 million.

AAM's circulation data now include digital subscriptions, as well as other branded products, such as commuter, community, alternative-language and others. Some companies charge for access to content online, while others derive digital subscriptions only through e-readers such as Kindle. Digital editions now account for 19.3% of U.S. daily newspapers' total average circulation vs. 14.2% in the year-ago period, the report says.

AAM noted that the variability in accounting for digital readers renders direct paper-to-paper comparisons unreliable.

"Due to the many ways that newspapers now distribute and market their content — including year-over-year changes at individual papers — AAM cautions against drawing too many direct comparisons of the data in the Snapshot report," it says.

Larry Kramer, publisher of USA TODAY, says the newspaper's policy of free content online rather than subscriptions keeps its circulation average lower in comparison to others, even though its readership across all platforms is growing. "In regard to digital, our business model is different than our competitors. We are an advertising-driven business that continues to offer free content to our customers for broader access."

Citing ComScore data for online traffic, he says, "If you look at numbers that more accurately measure digital audiences, we are ahead of the competition. We have an audience of more than 50 million while NYT is under 48 million and Wall Street Journal is under 25 million."