Circulation News

Readership Rises, Circulation Declines

Newspaper readership in the top 50 U.S. markets continued to show improvement, while circulation numbers dipped slightly, according to recent industry reports.

The Competitive Media Index from the Newspaper Association of American found that over the course of a week (five weekdays plus a Sunday) newspapers reached 81.8 percent of adults. Daily newspaper readership was at 55.5 percent, an increase over the 2001 rate of 54.3 percent and over five weekdays, three quarters of adults (74.5 percent) in the top 50 markets read a daily newspaper at least once.

The latest Fas-Fax data from the Audit Bureau of Circulation for the six-month period ending March 31, 2002, shows average daily net-paid circulation in the 820 papers reporting dipped slightly from the year before, 0.6 percent. On Sunday, the trend was about the same, falling 0.7 percent.

"The circulation numbers are not surprising in a down economy," NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm explained. "Many newspapers have scaled back their promotional spending, as well as pulling back physically from some sales locations on the outer edges of their markets.

"Nevertheless, when you look at these reports side by side, you can see that newspapers are delivering the reader base the advertisers value. It also clearly demonstrates what we’ve been saying for some time – more people read a newspaper than buy one," he added.

Exemption Sought from Telemarketing Regs

The Newspaper Association of America filed comments with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last month urging the exemption of the newspaper industry from national "do-not-call" regulations, citing the industry’s 60 years of responsible practices in local markets with established customers.

"Newspapers have a compelling business interest not to engage in the abusive practices the FTC is targeting with these proposed regulations," said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm.

NAA pointed out that existing do-not-call regulations enforced by the Federal Communications Commission mean that anyone receiving a call from a newspaper or its agent can simply opt out of receiving future calls. Sturm said the rules in place today more than adequately protect people from unwanted calls and noted that several states exempt newspapers from their state do-not-call regulations.

Further, NAA urged the commission to reexamine its reasoning with respect to predictive dialers and its proposal to eliminate the written confirmation method for consumer-billing authorization.

"With nearly 60 percent of new subscription sales generated by telemarketing, imposing these onerous and unnecessarily restrictive requirements on newspaper telemarketing activities would have a deleterious effect on the industry, without affording our customers any additional protections they do not already enjoy," said Sturm.