Yesterday, we posted that newspaper circulation figures had been released, and noted that we were looking forward to the spin that Chronicle publisher Jack Sweeney would put on the news.
We didn’t have to wait long for the Chronicle‘s press release coverage of itself. And there’s some pretty good spin:
The Houston Chronicle’s daily and Sunday circulation declined in the six-month period that ended March 30, the Audit Bureau of Circulations has reported.
Daily circulation decreased by 3.6 percent to 513,387, compared with the prior year, and the Sunday figure declined 3.9 percent to 692,557.
On average, the top 25 daily newspapers in the United States saw circulation decline by 3.5 percent.
The bolded part is clever! The Associated Press story actually reported that overall newspaper circulation declined by 2.5%. The Chronicle PR staff did some good work in massaging the numbers so that the Chronicle‘s decline doesn’t look quite so bad, compared to other large newspapers. Lemonade from lemons!
Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney attributed the newspaper’s declines to reductions in distribution to parts of Texas and Louisiana because of high fuel costs, as well as tighter audit bureau rules related to delinquent accounts.
Under new audit bureau rules, “computer systems must be programmed to eliminate the subscriber address from paid circulation averages automatically on day 91,” Sweeney said. “It took our market a while to adjust to the change.”
Sweeney has been trotting out those explanations for a while now. Here’s Sweeney in November 2005:
The Chronicle’s decline was primarily due to a more conservative auditing posture by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, said Jack Sweeney, president and publisher of the Chronicle.
“We used to be able to collect and show proof of payment to ABC on overdue accounts,” Sweeney said. “Now if a subscriber is one day late with a payment over 90 days, the computer system automatically eliminates the address from the paid circulation averages.”
Soaring fuel costs have also altered circulation strategies, Sweeney said. “We’ve pulled our distribution in closer to our core market by eliminating San Antonio, Dallas, far South Texas and parts of Louisiana,” Sweeney said.
And here’s Sweeney in May 2005:
The decline was primarily due to changes in accounting rules mandated by the audit bureau, as well as the Chronicle’s business decision to reduce distribution in Dallas, far South Texas and parts of Louisiana.
“We anticipated some decline of home-based subscriptions because of overdue accounts,” said Jack Sweeney, president and publisher of the Chronicle.
“If a subscriber is one day late with a payment over 90 days, they’re eliminated from the paid circulation averages. We were hit harder than usual by late payments this last six-month reporting period, so we’ll be working on improving our collection procedures.”
The tighter ABC rules were established some time ago, as the previous stories illustrate. They really aren’t so relevant to this cycle. And in a reasonable world, people who haven’t paid in over 90 days shouldn’t count as subscribers anyway! Maybe the Chron PR people can come up with something more original for the November 2006 press release (er, sorry, news coverage of the newspaper’s circulation).
As expected, Sweeney downplayed the circulation decline by arguing that the Chronicle‘s “overall reach” (including Chron.com, direct mail, and free products) continues to rise.
BLOGVERSATION: Slampo’s Place, Brazosport News.
