Denver papers' circulation falls

By David Milstead, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 12:52 p.m., April 28, 2008
Updated 09:03 p.m., April 28, 2008

Denver's newspapers posted double-digit circulation declines during the six months ended in March, compared with the same period in the year before.

Total paid circulation at the Rocky Mountain News fell 11.3 percent, to 225,065 from 253,833 on March 31, 2007. At The Denver Post, circulation slipped 11.4 percent, to 225,193 from 254,059 last year.

The Sunday Post fell 14.8 percent, to 600,026 from 704,169 in the prior year.

The Rocky's Saturday edition fell 10.9 percent to 490,043, from 550,088 in the prior year.

March's numbers were essentially flat from Sept. 30, 2007, the date of the previous circulation report.

The Denver Newspaper Agency said the circulation decline was due in part to a decision to cut back on special advertiser-sponsored copies that are delivered to nonsubscribers.

These newspapers can be counted as paid circulation, but many advertisers have questioned their value since recipients didn't ask for them.

The newspaper agency handles business operations for both papers.

The numbers were released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, an advertiser-backed group that provides assurance that newspapers' reported numbers are accurate.

The report compares average circulation for the six months ended March 31 with the six months ended March 31, 2007.

At the nearly 550 papers that reported comparable figures for both periods, average daily circulation fell 3.6 percent in the most recent period.

Gannett Co.'s USA Today remained the top-selling paper in the country with an average daily circulation of 2,284,219, up 0.3 percent. The Wall Street Journal rose 0.4 percent to 2,069,463. The New York Times Co.'s flagship paper remained the third-largest with circulation of 1,077,256, down 3.9 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Harry Whipple, president and CEO of the agency, highlighted a measurement of the Denver newspapers' total audience from a report from Scarborough Research. Whipple said the weekly cumulative print readership for the two newspapers is holding near 1.3 million for the third year in a row.

"As we pare expensive promotional copies, it's heartening to see that the loyalty of print readers remains as strong as ever," Whipple said. "And as Web traffic to our sites increases, it simply reinforces our role as the area's dominant media provider, no matter what the format is."

Denver circulation for the six-month period ended September 2007 was down from 11.2 percent to 13.5 percent.

The agency said a report from Omniture Website Traffic Reports shows average weekly unique visitors to the agency's family of Web sites was 1.1 million during the six months ended March 31, a 22 percent increase over the previous six months.

One of the challenges for the newspaper industry nationwide is that companies receive less advertising revenue per unique Web site visitor than for a print subscriber.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Finance Editor David Milstead can be reached at milstead@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2648.