Los Angeles Times Posts Daily Circulation - INCREASE!

Read all the bad, bad news for major newspapers today in Editor & Publisher - but at the bottom of the below excerpt is the surprise that the LA Time's daily circulation has gone UP by .5%! Now Sunday did drop by 5.1%, but that is also the period when the TV guide was dropped, so that maybe a one time loss. As for what this all means - more in a later post.

First FAS-FAX Numbers: Many Top Papers Take Big Hits

By Jennifer Saba

Published: November 05, 2007 8:10 AM ET

NEW YORK The Audit Bureau of Circulations released circulation numbers for more than 700 daily newspapers this morning for the six-month period ending September 2007. Of the top 25 papers in daily circulation (see chart, separate story), only four showed gains.

According to an analysis of ABC figures, for 538 daily U.S. newspapers, circulation declined 2.5% to 40,689,617. For 609 papers that filed on Sunday, overall circulation dropped 3.5% to 46,771,486. The percentages are based on comparisons from the same period a year ago.

For The New York Times, daily circulation fell 4.51% to 1,037,828 and Sunday plunged 7.59% to 1,500,394, at least partly due to a price increase.

Daily circulation at The Washington Post was down 3.2% to 635,087 and Sunday was down 3.9% to 894,428.

Daily circulation at The Boston Globe tumbled 6.6% to 360,695 and Sunday fell about the same, 6.5% to 548,906.

The Wall Street Journal was down 1.53% to 2,011,882 daily but USA Today posted a gain of 1% to 2,293,137.

The New York Post slipped this period with daily circ down 5.2% to 667,119 and Sunday fell 5% to 405,486. New York's Daily News also showed declines in daily circ down 1.7% to 681,415 while Sunday decreased 6.8% to 726,305.

At the Chicago Tribune, daily circulation slipped 2.9% to 559,404 and Sunday fell 2% to 917,868.

Its sister publication, the Los Angeles Times, grew slightly up 0.5% to 779,682, while Sunday fell 5.1% to 1,112,165.