Texas Insider

11:10 am CST - October 27, 2009

Dallas Morning News Circulation Drops 22%, Houston Chronicle Down 14%

Houston Business Journal

The Houston Chronicle lost 14.2 percent of its daily circulation and 6.3 percent of its Sunday circulation in the six-month period ending Sept. 30, 2009, compared with the same six months in 2008, according to Audit Bureau of Circulation figures released Monday. Daily circulation was 384,419 as of Sept. 30, down from 448,271 at the same point last year.

Meanwhile, Sunday circulation fell to 547,387 from 584,160 last year. The Houston Chronicle retains the ninth-best daily circulation and seventh-best Sunday circulation among the Top 25 U.S. Daily Newspapers, according to the ABC.

Hardest-hit during the period was the San Francisco Chronicle, which lost 25.8 percent of its daily readership, followed by the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger and the Dallas Morning News, which both saw daily circulation drop 22 percent.

The 562 newspapers reporting data for Sunday circulation together lost an average of 3.2 million subscribers, or nearly 7.5 percent, to end at 40 million.

Publisher and President Jack Sweeney, in a Monday article in the Houston Chronicle, attributed the decline in print circulation to the newspaper’s delivery area being reduced to a 90-mile radius of downtown Houston and to price increases passed to the reader.

“Revenue from circulation needs to carry a bigger portion of our business going forward so prices continue to be increased,” Sweeney said in the article.

Overall, U.S. newspaper daily circulation at 379 reporting papers lost an average of 3.6 million subscribers, or 10.6 percent, between September 2008 and September 2009, falling to about 30.4 million, according to the ABC.

The Wall Street Journal was the only top-ranking newspaper to gain daily circulation, moving up 0.61 percent. It has more than 2 million subscribers, according to the ABC.

10 Comments

CWJensen
12:16 pm CST
October 27, 2009

These print relics remind me of APPLE when Microsoft introduced millions to computers.
It took Apple 30 years to get back into business.
Businesses and IDEAS come and go……………………………………………………………………………..if you want to compete you CHANGE and provide a better service.
Most of these RAGS are myopic and deserve to GO.

Paul
2:12 pm CST
October 27, 2009

I’d take the paper if they didn’t have such a leftist slant.

Don Mc
2:45 pm CST
October 27, 2009

These left wing mouthpieces are getting their due!

Gary
4:39 pm CST
October 27, 2009

I worked during the week in Dallas for about two years. When they named the illegal alien as their man of the year was the last time I purchased their paper. From then on it was the Fort Worth (Star Telegram I believe) paper. If it was sold out , and it was quite often when that first happened, I did without. Now I usually just get my news online and read WND. I’M tired of the liberal crap the MSM is putting out.

C.White
5:19 pm CST
October 27, 2009

After being a paid up regular customer of the Houston Chronicle for more than 35 years, 7 years at this location the Chronicle dropped us as customers with three days notice even though we were paid up for the next 7 months!

The excuse was “we were not profitable any more”! They said they’d be happy to deliver the paper to the intersection of SH 105 and 912. 2 1/2 miles from here. That’s 5 miles a day we’d have to drive for home delivery!

So as far as I’m concerned the Chronicle can crash and burn. Good ridance!

Ed Sunderland
5:49 pm CST
October 27, 2009

Newspapers and liberal news outlets blame all their losses on the internet. They’re right. We are sick and tired of being fed their liberal lies and get our information elsewhere.

Furthermore, being in business and using the paper for advertising is an extraordinarily expensive proposition. Why can a citizen place an ad for an old car one price, but if you are a struggling real estate agent or a small business, that same three or four line ad costs at least twice as much?
Somehow being “commercial” you are penalized and the papers stick it to you.

I am sorry people in the print business are losing their jobs but they have only their liberal owners and editors to blame.

AL ZOLLI
3:50 am CST
October 27, 2009

It is not so much the left or right “slant” of a newspaper, the problem is the newspaper business model is out dated and a failure in the modern world. Almost everything the newspaper provides is being offered by many other sources in a more “friendly” method, the internet. What does a newspaper offer that you cannot find on the internet? News? Weather? Sports? Entertainment? Business News? So what is left that is exclusively covered by a newspaper? The obituaries? Legal Notices? And most of the news stories are copied AP stories that are hours old and stale.

Larry Richey
6:10 pm CST
October 27, 2009

The Dallas Morning News has slanted their views and reporting so far left they appeal only to people who are incapable of reading their paper…… they have been that way for 20 years. Big strategic mistake.

Jerry Brown
12:59 pm CST
October 27, 2009

We stopped the Chronicle several years ago when we faced the fact that the newspaper did not reflect our conservative Texas views on just about anything. We then got the “free” west side addition thrown onto our lawn usually on Fridays. We believe this was to increase numbers so advertisers would be more willing to put in ads. We ffinally succeded in getting this stopped. We might suggest if you get ‘free” nespapers you call or write the Chronicle to get it stopped. We now take the Wall Stree Journal, missing local news, but getting a more conservative and truthfull telling of the news.

roycecedric
3:48 pm CST
October 27, 2009

Recession is the main cause regarding the drop of paper delivery. There is a huge down and loss in the morning paper delivery. Morning paper delivery has a huge loss.