Morning News Numbers Include 7,584 at Bargain Rate

The most recent circulation numbers for The Morning News of Springdale included 7,584 subscriptions (on both Sundays and weekdays) that were sold at 25 to 50 percent of the regular price, which is $74 per year.

Two years ago, the Audit Bureau of Circulations began letting newspapers count subscriptions that were discounted at more than 50 percent but not more than 75 percent off the regular rate. For the six months ended March 31, 2003, The Morning News had only 1,623 subscriptions that fell into the category of being discounted by more than 50 percent.

Lewis Floyd, circulation director for The Morning News, said the 7,584 number reflects subscriptions that were converted from “carrier collect to office pay.” As incentive to get subscribers to switch to paying at The Morning News office instead of paying a newspaper carrier, The Morning News offered subscriptions at about 75 percent off for one year, Floyd said.

Since those subscribers were already getting the paper, Floyd said, the 7,584 number doesn’t reflect a push to bring in new subscribers and pump up circulation figures.

“They were not new subscribers,” Floyd said. “They were paying through the carriers.”

Floyd said the number of people paying 25 percent of the regular rate will go down in the future as subscribers are weaned off the discount.

For the six months ended March 31, 2004, The Morning News weekday circulation increased by 24 (from 38,251 to 38,275) and its Sunday circulation decreased by three (from 41,451 to 41,448), according to unaudited numbers filed with ABC.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, in the meantime, showed a circulation increase in Northwest Arkansas of 4.9 percent weekdays (from 32,909 to 34,527) and 1 percent on Sundays (from 44,037 to 44,481) for the six-month period ended March 31. That’s the D-G’s circulation for Washington, Benton, Carroll and Madison counties combined, which corresponds to The Morning News’ circulation zone.

Hector Cueva, the D-G’s circulation director for Northwest Arkansas, said none of the D-G’s subscriptions were sold at more than a 50 percent discount. He said the D-G had some Internet-only subscribers who paid less than 50 percent of the going rate, but none of those were counted as Northwest Arkansas circulation.

Floyd said the six-month figures are just a snapshot, though. He said comparing circulation for the six months ended March 31, 2001, to the most recent six-month period shows The Morning News up 5.5 percent on weekdays and 14 percent on Sundays while the D-G was up 6 percent on weekdays and .05 percent on Sundays.

The Morning News is owned by Stephens Media Group. The D-G is owned by Wehco Media Inc. In both cases, the owners are located in Little Rock.