Morning News Circ Drops by 10 Percent
by May 23, 2005 12:00 am 55 views
The Morning News’ total paid daily circulation dropped by 3,846 for the six months ended March 31 when compared to the same period of the previous year, according to the Springdale newspaper’s filing with the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
The Morning News daily circulation dropped 10 percent from a reported 38,275 to 34,429. During the same time period, the newspaper’s Sunday circulation dropped by 3.3 percent (1,381) from 41,448 to 40,067.
The Morning News took the biggest hit in the category of home delivery and mail (at less than 50 percent of full price). That category saw a 63.2 percent drop from 7,584 to 2,792.
ABC requires that newspapers sell for at least 25 percent of full price to be counted as circulation.
Lewis Floyd, circulation director for The Morning News, said the decrease was due to the publication dropping its discount rate of $20 per year. Now, the cheapest rate for The Morning News is $49.95 per year.
The $20 rate had been available for two years, but readers tended to cancel the subscription rather than paying higher rates for subsequent years.
“We just didn’t see a benefit to it,” Floyd said. “We don’t force our customers to take the paper during the week like the Democrat-Gazette does. We have a package, but we don’t force it.”
Floyd said the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette forces Sunday subscribers to also take the Friday and Saturday newspapers, which can be counted by ABC as partial weekday circulation.
“We put out a paper that’s better than the Democrat,” Floyd said, “so if theirs is worth $54 a year, ours is surely worth $49.95.”
The D-G’s circulation in Northwest Arkansas (Washington, Benton, Carroll and Madison counties combined) increased by 1.3 percent on weekdays for the six-month period ended March 31, while Sunday circulation rose 0.2 percent. That’s according to unaudited figures filed with ABC.
Unaudited Circulation Numbers
Click here for the newspaper circulation chart. (Chart requires Adobe Acrobat viewer. Click here for a free copy.)