The doomsayers were right. Virtually every major newspaper in the US has lost circulation this year, bar one — Rupert Murdoch’s New York
Post.
While most newspaper sales are down, the daily sales of the Post were up over five per cent, making it now the fifth largest newspaper in the US.
The Post's daily sale – according to official figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations — topped 704,000 in the six months to the end of September, putting it ahead of the rival Daily News, and even ahead of The Washington Post.
It was a moment for celebration at the Post, which proclaimed its new success with a headline reading "Thanks New York". Editor-in-chief Col Allen described it as a joyous occasion, while Rupert Murdoch called it “a great and historic day for the Post”.
The Post, which was founded in 1801, is the oldest continuously published daily paper in the US.
From the Daily News there was no comment – except to point out that its Sunday sales still exceed the Post — 781,000 copies compared with 427,000. Its ad income is still way ahead of the Post too, but that gap is also shrinking.
Elsewhere in the US newspaper market, the losses are steeper than even the pessimists had predicted, and could spell doom for some papers.
The Boston Globe, for example, which is now owned by the NY Times and is one of the biggest losers – with a drop in daily sales of almost seven per cent and almost 10 per cent on Sundays – is causing
serious concern among NYT shareholders, who are suggesting it should be put up for sale.
Other US circulation figures for the six months:
USA Today – 2,269,000 (down 1.3 per cent)
The Wall Street Journal – 2,043,000 (down 1.9 per cent)
The New
York Times – 1,086,000 (down 3.5 per cent)
Los Angeles Times – 775,000 (down 8 per cent)
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