Newspaper Circulation in Freefall

While a few newspapers bucked the trend, the downward spiral in newspaper readership continues unabated. This chart in today's New York Times says it all.

A few thoughts: The Wall Street Journal not only lost circulation, but more than half its circulation is now online and those paid subscribers (it's the only newspaper that makes readers buy its content on the web) are included in its total. So most Journal readers now are like me: they read it every day, but they read it only online.

The Los Angeles Times seems to have stopped its slide momentarily. That must be heartening to Jim O'Shea, its new editor, whom I once worked for. I congratuate him, and if it is anything other than blind luck, he ought to share his secrets with the world. Ditto for USA Today (How much of this circulation is real anyway? I'm at a hotel this morning, so I guess I'm included in the totals.).

As readers gravitate to the web, advertising in this medium is just a fraction of the lost advertising at the print editions. And as long as that's the case, the financial support for independent journalism will continue to erode. One of the major issues confronting our democracy in the next few years will be whether an independent, neutral source of news is worth having; and if it is, who will finance it.