Yeah, we have a problem
October 2005 - Average paid circulation 26,727
October 2006 - Average paid circulation 26,639
October 2007 - Average paid circulation 24,183
October 2008 - Average paid circulation 19,805
October 2009 - Average paid circulation 18,882
For those of you keeping score at home, that's a 29 percent decline. Can't blame it on QuincyNews.org, either . . . it started before QNO appeared on the scene.
That's the world of newspapers these days.
October 2006 - Average paid circulation 26,639
October 2007 - Average paid circulation 24,183
October 2008 - Average paid circulation 19,805
October 2009 - Average paid circulation 18,882
For those of you keeping score at home, that's a 29 percent decline. Can't blame it on QuincyNews.org, either . . . it started before QNO appeared on the scene.
That's the world of newspapers these days.
posted by Allthenewsthatfits at 12:50 PM
12 Comments:
Look at the Alexa ranks ESP page views from Pre-QNO to post QNO
I did hear a rumor that Breitbart was going to ask Ed to write up a piece for him , I think the piece is to be about the 2016 games in Chicago
;)
It may have started before QNO came on the scene, but the lion's share of the 29% decline has come since QNO's launch in 2008. A 22% slide since QNO came on the scene.
I think any cause-and-effect relationship between QNO's arrival and the H-W's slide is very unlikely. The H-W's circulation declines are on a par with those of other newspapers around the country.
My guess would be that nearly 100 percent of QNO's readers also read the Herald-Whig, because they are people who follow local events closely. The drop has come from people who no longer get any local news at all, except what scraps they can pick up from an occasional glance at a TV set and whatever pops up in their online feeds or on the radio as they drive to work. One generation had the habit of systematically following local events -- reading the newspaper every afternoon, followed by the local TV news before dinner; the next generation picks up tidbits fairly randomly, because it is not as intimately tied to the locality in which it lives.
As the generation of faithful newspaper readers ages and dies off, the new generation's habits signal a complete overhaul of delivery media. My prediction would be that by 2015 a print subscription will cost substantially more than an online one, as economics force newspapers across the country to push readers online. Those presses, print crews, and delivery staff get more and more comparatively expensive with each dropped subscriber. You'll have to pay a heavy premium for the "convenience" of a home-delivered print edition.
Look at the numbers again.
The percentage of the drop since October 2007 is far greater than the average rate.
QNO started in...what? Spring 2008?
I'm sure the state of newspapers in general and the Whig's overall crappiness is too blame for most of that, but you can't help but wonder if the birth of QNO didn't exacerbate the situation.
I run a local business.
How can The Whig continue to jack my ad rates when they are delivering fewer eyeballs?
Thank you.
I don't think anyone should underestimate the incompetence of the Whig, but 7:54 am it correct. I challenge Allthenews to find another paper that has experienced a 19% decline in circulation in just one year's time.
The New York Post last year, for starters.
You all that call the Whig "crappy" should really get out more. I have read newspapers in cities twice the size of Quincy that make the Whig look like the Manchester Guardian. I have my problems with the Whig, but given the size of its staff I think it does a very good job overall. It undercovers some areas and over-covers others, but what news organization doesn't?
10:08 AM
The opposite is most likely true. You need to get out and ask more people why they no longer subscribe to the Whig. Most small papers face less competition from other media outlets. Also, there is less competition on the Web for local news in most markets. Not true in Quincy any longer. The Whig has become a joke in the last few years as it has become a collection of cheerleading and quilting articles. The one year 19% decline in subscriptions cannot possibly be attributed to the national fall of the newspaper.
True, a one-year decline cannot be entirely attributed to the nationwide troubles of the newspaper industry. But I am entirely unconvinced that a large number of people are dropping their Herald-Whig subscriptions because they are getting their news from QuincyNews.org as an alternative.
QNO is a nice addition to the media mix in the area, and I'm glad it exists, but it's not a stand-alone news source. It lacks meaningful sports coverage, original features (i.e., enterprise reported rather than linked from another source), wedding and anniversary announcements, regular photos and other graphic material, and multiple columnists who represent a range of opinion.
So I think the H-W's circulation decline comes from several different factors. First and foremost, the demographic and reader habit shifts I mentioned above. Second, the economic downturn. Third, the overall decline in population in the area. Competition from QNO may be a factor, but I think it's way down the list.
I'm not arguing that all these former Whig subscribers are canceling due solely to the existence of the new online news source. The conditions
you describe were no different in any other year you list than they were in the period when QNO came on the scene. I agree with you
that perhaps people are not getting their news solely from QNO, but it is a fact that there has been a mass exodus from the Whig. One factor you fail to include in this decline is that perhaps QNO has shed some light on the utter failure of the Whig to cover stories in a way that doesn't promote their agenda. You can't blame everyone and everything else for the decline without looking at the paper itself.
It's simply a matter of content. The international and national news the Whig delivers is stale by the time it gets to the front porch. The local coverage is past due thanks in part to the internet, QNO, radio and television. Dead tree media cannot deliver up-to-date news in this fast-paced world anymore. How will it survive? Will in-depth news and analysis of local issues and more special interest stories help? Who knows. The younger generations are skipping newspapers in droves. They are more selective in what they read and where they get their information. By the time I get the paper in the evening, I already know most of what it is delivering.
Too bad those figures are the ones that that they must publish to retain their preferred (subsidized second-class) mailing privileges.
If you could publish their most Audit Bureau of Circulations six-month FAS-FAX report or the annual Audit figures to see how much *crap* circulation they have (third-party bulk sales, thousands of copies sent weekly to schools for "education" programs") the losses in core sales would be even more staggering.
If there is a change in the requirements for publishing legal advertising that would allow it to be placed on a website instead of a general circulation daily newspaper, the QHW (and many others) would fade away. Legal advertsing (and obituaries) are the most costly advertising there is.
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