Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Oregonian 2015 Circulation Continues Drop

Oregonian Paid Daily Circulation for September
from Statement of Ownership reports
Update: 2020 circulation news here.

On October 1, 2013, the Oregonian went to a four day a week delivery of its print newspaper. It has not worked out well for paid circulation.

By September of 2014 its paid daily circulation had dropped to 163,635 almost 18% off its 2013 pre-four day delivery paid daily circulation of 203,051.

That pattern has continued into 2015. The September 2015 report published Friday on page A4 of the Oregonian shows that paid daily circulation has dropped another 19% in a year to 121,573.

That's almost a 45% loss in paid daily (Friday) print circulation in just three years from September 2012 to September 2015.

The Oregonian already was in a slide. From 2012 to 2013, the newspaper lost 7.7% in paid daily print circulation going from 219,997 to 203,051. But, the decrease has accelerated with four day delivery.

These figures do not include digital paid daily circulation, but up to the time the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) stopped giving circulation figures, the Oregonian was not doing well on digital circulation. The September 2012 digital circulation figure was 17,323 out of a total AAM circulation figure of 228,599. (The AAM figure is almost 9,000 higher than the Statement of Ownership report cited above for 2012 because it used different metrics than Statement of Ownership information required by Federal law for any publication that uses the U.S. Postal Service special rates.)

Here are the September Statement of Ownership reports for the Oregonian from 2012 to 2015:

Friday print paid circulation:
2012 - 219,997
2013 - 203,051
2014 - 163,635
2015 - 121,573

Sunday print paid circulation:
2014 - 203,031
2015 - 167,458

Using AAM metrics here are Oregonian September daily circulation figures:
2000 - 348,468
2005 - 333,515
2010 - 239,071

6 comments:

MAX Redline said...

Their decision to move to a tabloid format and outsource the print operations certainly didn't help, nor did their decision to dump experienced reporters in favor of 20- and 30-somethings with little grasp of journalism. Although getting rid of Jonathan Nicholas, who had inexplicably been promoted to an editorial staff position, was a good move, it was too little and too late.

T. D. said...

Sorry, I've been long on responding, Max. My mom fell and broke her hip Wednesday, and we have been up at the hospital most of the day since then. They got her in for partial hip replacement surgery the next evening. So, that was a blessing. And the surgeon said everything went well. Now for healing and on to rehab. :-)

As for the Oregonian, I am astounded at how massive the loss has been. Losing almost 40% of its paid circulation in two years has to have a devastating impact. They turned a slow bleed into a big bleed.

MAX Redline said...

No expectations, TD - and broken hips actually kill a lot of the elder set, so it's good to see that she was admitted and quickly got assistance. Unfortunately, healing will take quite a bit of time, so best to you and yours during this difficult time.

As for The Oregonian, Advance Publications seems inappropriately named; they're killing that paper. The Oregonian was doing that on its own, but Advance has really accelerated the process.

T. D. said...

Yes, I know broken hips are usually the harbinger of a steep decline. We'll see. So far she has shown a lot of courage, and we're hoping with all of us kids and my dad giving her encouragement she will be able to fight back to a reasonable but limited mobility.

Advance seems to be trying this and that and not doing too well with either. They seem to view themselves as wunderkinds. So, they are not averse to risking their own wealth and lots of other people's livelihoods in their experiments.

OregonGuy said...

I remember a time when the Oregonian would have been on this list.


https://medium.com/@dicktofel/the-sky-is-falling-on-print-newspapers-faster-than-you-think-c84a2f9a9df4#.v5upphxsz

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T. D. said...

Great link, OG! Gives me info I didn't have on 2015 stats.

You are right that the Oregonian fell off the top 25 list in 2013. It was still on the list in 2012.