Times' circulation gains counter state trend

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 30, 2001

Florida's largest newspapers lost circulation over the past six months, but the St. Petersburg Times again bucked the trend.

For the six-month period ended Sept. 30, the Times' average circulation was up 1.7 percent daily and 2.2 percent Sunday over the same period a year earlier. That made the Times the only major newspaper in the state to post daily and Sunday gains, according to the numbers compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

It also allowed the Times to maintain its position as the state's largest daily newspaper. The Miami Herald is still tops on Sunday, but the Times is closing the gap. The Herald's Sunday circulation lead, which was 41,030 a year ago, was 15,167 during the period just ended.

The Herald and other South Florida newspapers were among the biggest circulation losers over the past six months. That is partly because last year's comparison period was so strong. It included the circulation-boosting saga of Elian Gonzalez, the young Cuban refugee seized by federal agents and returned to Cuba with his father.

The Times and many other newspapers have seen circulation increase since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. But because those gains were so recent, they did not have a big impact on the report, which is based on averages for the six-month period.

The Times' gains occurred despite an increase in the newsstand price of the daily newspaper from 25 cents to 35 cents for most of its circulation area.

"We continue to invest in the staff and paper to publish a first-rate news report, and I think we've done a steadily better job in marketing so that our readers and potential readers know that they can count on us for quality," said Paul Tash, Times editor and president.

The Tampa Tribune's circulation was down 1.9 percent daily and 1.4 percent Sunday for the latest period. Publisher and president Steven Weaver did not return a call seeking comment.

The Tampa Bay area is one of the nation's strongest newspaper readership markets, according to survey results the Newspaper Association of America in Vienna, Va., released Monday.

In the 50 largest U.S. markets, an average of 54 percent of adults said they read a newspaper the previous day and 64 percent said they read one the previous Sunday. But in the Tampa Bay area, adult readership was 62 percent daily and 75 percent Sunday in the surveys done earlier this year.

Those numbers put the Tampa Bay area in seventh place daily and second place Sunday. Other U.S. newspaper markets that ranked high in the survey included West Palm Beach, Hartford/New Haven, Boston, Providence/New Bedford, Cleveland, New York and Minneapolis/St. Paul.

While newspapers have struggled to attract and maintain readers who face competing demands on their time, newspaper association officials say the survey results and the recent interest in news are heartening.

"We hear anecdotally that people who haven't really spent a whole lot of time with the newspapers in recent years (are) pretty engrossed in the coverage of everything that's going on," NAA president John Sturm said.

Nationally, newspaper circulation was mixed for the latest reporting period. The Wall Street Journal and New York Daily News were among those reporting gains, while USA Today, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post were among those reporting losses. The New York Times' numbers were up daily and down Sunday.

-- Helen Huntley can be reached at huntley@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8230.

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