The Oregonian's 12.06% decline was 1/5th higher than the national average 10.06% loss measured among 379 newspapers.
In the last two years the Oregonian has seen a 22% reduction in circulation down more than 70,000 from 319,624 in September 2007.
The circulation drop combined with the national trend of falling advertising revenue is not good news for the big O.
The only major newspaper to show a circulation increase was the Wall Street Journal at 0.06%. Its 2,024,269 daily circulation puts it number one in the nation overtaking USA Today and more than doubling the circulation of the New York Times. The list of the top 25:
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL -- 2,024,269 -- 0.61%
USA TODAY -- 1,900,116 -- (-17.15%)
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- 927,851 -- (-7.28%)
LOS ANGELES TIMES -- 657,467 -- (-11.05%)
THE WASHINGTON POST -- 582,844 -- (-6.40%)
DAILY NEWS (NEW YORK) -- 544,167 -- (-13.98%)
NEW YORK POST -- 508,042 -- (-18.77%)
CHICAGO TRIBUNE -- 465,892 -- (-9.72%)
HOUSTON CHRONICLE -- 384,419 -- (-14.24%)
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER -- 361,480 -- N/A
NEWSDAY -- 357,124 -- (-5.40%)
THE DENVER POST -- 340,949 -- N/A
THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC -- 316,874 -- (-12.30%)
STAR TRIBUNE, MINNEAPOLIS -- 304,543 -- (-5.53%)
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES -- 275,641 -- (-11.98%)
The PLAIN DEALER, CLEVELAND -- 271,180 -- (-11.24%)
DETROIT FREE PRESS (e) -- 269,729 -- (-9.56%)
THE BOSTON GLOBE -- 264,105 -- (-18.48%)
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS -- 263,810 -- (-22.16%)
THE SEATTLE TIMES -- 263,588 -- N/A
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- 251,782 -- (-25.82%)
THE OREGONIAN -- 249,163 -- (-12.06%)
THE STAR-LEDGER, NEWARK -- 246,006 -- (-22.22%)
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE -- 242,705 -- (-10.05%)
ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES -- 240,147 -- (-10.70%)
2 comments:
I walk by an Oregonian box at least once a day, pausing to take a look at the headline de jour.
I usually just shake my head and walk on, reminiscing over the days when I would always read the "O" from first to last. (Okay, I didn't read all the classifieds, but I did look.)
Back in the early '80's, the "O" had one of the best business sections of any paper in the U.S. Those years are long gone, and the "O" writes love letters to its sisters on the Left.
Their attempt to modify public opinion is biting back; don't tell us what to believe, just give us the facts. We can see when we're being preached to, and frankly, we don't go to the same church.
If they manned up and hired some reporters who knew the issues and understood the policy prescriptions, mebbe it would be worth reading the "O" again. But I doubt that day will ever come. And with hints that the government may step in and bail them out, why should they?
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My parents are newspaper readers and I and my siblings are too. Even some of the younger generation are. But no one has an Oregonian subscription anymore. My parents were the last to give it up. The O has called them twice in the last few months to ask them to come back. But, none of us will because we don't trust their news. Not only because it is politically biased (though that is a big issue since we are conservatives). What turned even my parents against the Oregonian was that all the local stories that we knew something about were inaccurate (at best) and slanted (at worst) even when the political implications were pretty distant.
There is an agenda that only rarely gets put aside. As you say, no one likes to be preached at--especially under the guise of journalistic professionalism.
So, now we read books more and along with most of the rest of the nation have little respect for journalists.
Too bad. Once you lose a good name, it's really hard to get it back. And even a free subscription, which the O is apparently going to send my parents, isn't going to win them back. They don't trust the newspaper. So, the issue is no longer even paying for it. The issue has become wasting time reading a newspaper trying to sell a viewpoint. Opinion magazines do a much better job of that and are upfront about it.
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