Central Mass. Papers Continue To See Circ Slip
Fitchburg's Sentinel & Enterprise bucks trend
By Set Suthel, AP Business Writer
The Audit Bureau of Circulation's most recent circulation reports were not pleasant for newspapers nationally, and by and large they were bad news locally.
Average weekday circulation at U.S. newspapers fell 2.6 percent during the six month-period ending in September in the latest sign of trouble in the newspaper business, according to ABC.
The same trend hit papers in the local area, with weekday circulation dropping 5.3 percent at the Worcester Telegram and Gazette and 2.1 percent at the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham over the past year. Total circulation at The Gardner News, which publishes Monday through Saturday, was down 3.2 percent.
The Sentinel & Enterprise of Fitchburg and Leominster was the only local paper that did not see a decline. Its weekday circulation held steady, and its Sunday numbers rose 2 percent.
Beantown Breakdown
Things were even worse in Boston, with the Globe's weekday circulation dropping 6.7 percent and the Herald's plummeting 8.7 percent.
The declines show an acceleration of a years-long trend of falling circulation at daily newspapers as more people, especially young adults, turn to the Internet for news and as newspapers cut back on less profitable circulation.
In the previous six-month reporting period ending in March, weekday circulation fell 1.9 percent at U.S. daily newspapers and Sunday circulation fell 2.5 percent.
Circulation at the country's three largest newspapers was relatively stable, but many others showed significant declines.
Gannett Co.'s USA Today, the largest-selling daily, slipped 0.6 percent from the same period a year ago to 2,296,335; The Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones & Co., fell 1.1 percent to 2,083,660; and The New York Times Co.'s flagship paper rose 0.5 percent to 1,126,190.
Newspapers also face sluggish growth in advertising, higher newsprint prices and increasing concern among investors about their growth prospects. The second-largest newspaper publisher in the country, Knight Ridder Inc., is facing a revolt from two of its top shareholders, who want the company to be sold.
Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer Livia Gershon contributed to this story.
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