The latest Audit Bureau of Circulation figures must have publisher Mi-Ai Parrish and other top KC Star executives squirming.
Daily circulation (Monday to Friday) has hit a new low in the modern era.
For the first time since the paper passed the 200,000 mark on the way up to that level — probably 60 or 70 years ago — it now is below 200,000.
According to the figures, released on Tuesday, The Star’s total average daily circulation was 199,222 for the six-month period ending Sept. 30. That figure includes digital subscriptions.
Daily circulation had been 209,258 for the six-month period ending March 31 of this year.
The dip below 200,000 hurts in more than just the pride category: Those big, round, benchmark figures are important to advertisers. Where a little over 200,000 weekday circulation might draw a shrug from advertisers, the new low would likely draw some frowns and consternation..maybe even a re-evaluation of ad placements and an attempt to negotiate lower rates.
Another shaky development was on Sunday circulation, which is now above the 300,000 mark by the thickness of a piece of newsprint, at 300,450.
For the previous six-month period, total average Sunday circulation was 305,113.
Actually, Sunday circulation dipped below 300,000 at one point last year, but it regained the 300,000 plateau in the spring, after a an ABC rules change allowed papers to include in their figures newspapers distributed through Newspapers in Education (NIE) programs and copies sold in bulk to places like hotels and restaurants.
Now, it would appear, Sunday circulation will fall below 300,000 next March, barring unforeseen, favorable developments.
As recently as March 2009, Sunday circulation stood at 333,000.
Despite the lower numbers, The Star’s circulation still looks pretty good when compared to that of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Although it has the benefit of being in a much larger market, the P-D’s daily circulation, at 191,631, is less than The Star’s.
The P-D is still above 300,000 on Sunday, at 332,825.
***
Back on the journalistic front, The Star’s Glenn E. Rice had an exceptional story in Wednesday’s paper about the comings and goings of Lisa Irwin’s parents the night she disappeared.
Rice
Rice, who has been in on the story from the beginning, hit a home run with his straight-to-the point lead paragraph.
“The night before her 10-month-old daughter disappeared, Deborah Bradley spent several hours talking with a friend, smoking cigarettes and drinking five to 10 glasses of wine.”
From there, Rice gave a no-frills, right-down-the-line account of what took place in the Bradleys’ house that night…well, everything, of course, besides what happened to Lisa.
Wisely, Rice kept his voice out of the story and simply let the facts spill out. (Rice relied on an anonymous source who was “familiar with the family’s recollection of events from Oct. 3 and 4.”)
From the story, it appears to me that neither of them attempted to cover up anything that night. I now tend to think it was either an abduction — perhaps by someone familiar with Deborah’s drinking habits and Jeremy Bradley’s working schedule — or maybe a “baby giveaway.”
Maybe Lisa was interfering with Lisa’s wine-drinking sessions and had simply become too much of a bother for her. Also, if Deborah was drinking as much as she said the night of Oct. 3, I don’t think she would have had her wits about her enough to engineer, God forbid, the murder of her child without leaving any telltale evidence.
Of course, we don’t know everything that the police have — and they seem to think Deborah had something to do with the disappearance — but the fact that the mystery has gone on this long tends to indicate that clues are in short supply.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
What was the circulation of the Star at its height?
Good question, David. I sent an e-mail to Chris Christian, v.p. of advertising, to see if he can dig up the stats. Up until 1990, there were two papers, the morning Kansas City Times and the afternoon Star. A history of the papers on The Star’s website makes only one reference to circulation. It says that in 1965, The Times’ weekday circulation reached 347,742, exceeding that of The Star for the first time.
I’m quite sure that Sunday circulation was above 400,000 until the early 2000s. When I get more, I’ll pass it on.
How’s this for irony, Jim? The Catholic League is quoting you in its ongoing attacks against your former employer for refusing to accept its $25,000 advertisement.
November 3, 2011
KANSAS CITY STAR IS IMPLODING
Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the latest circulation figures of the Kansas City Star (the numbers are cited today by the Kansas City blog site JimmyCsays, and are taken from the Audit Bureau of Circulation):
The Star is in free fall: for the first time since before World War II, its daily circulation has fallen below 200,000 (the Sunday circulation is only about 300,000). Circulation numbers are of particular concern to newspaper advertisers—it determines the rates they are charged.
Because we believe in transparency, and because the Star purports to believe in truth in advertising, I am personally writing today to the CEO’s of the Star’s biggest advertisers letting them know they may be paying too much for their ads. Those advertisers are: Target; Kohl’s; Best Buy; Macy’s; Dick’s Sporting Goods; Dillard’s; Wal-Mart; Cabela’s; Sears; Verizon; and Sprint.
I will also let the big advertisers know that the data will only get worse. To be specific, between the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, there are approximately 1.5 million Catholics in the Star’s immediate readership area. Once they learn that the Star refused to run an ad by the Catholic League blowing the whistle on the enemies of Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn, more will bail.
I am sharing the ad I wrote with all the CEO’s. After all, they need to know why the Star is imploding so they can make an informed decision on where to park their advertising dollars. And since the holiday season is fast approaching, what better time to reconsider their contract with the Star. Social justice demands no less.
Contact Star publisher Mi-Ai Parrish: mparrish@kcstar.com
Contact our director of communications about Donohue’s remarks:
Jeff Field
Phone: 212-371-3191
E-mail: cl@catholicleague.org
It’s OK, this is just part of the economic downturn that has left us all unable to afford the $4-5 a week for a subscription. It will pass and things will soar at the Star.
I’m more of the opinion that once the habit is broken, it doesn’t come back.
Sadly, that’s probably true. For old guys like me, there’s nothing I would like better than to go out and pick up a newspaper in my driveway every morning, but that’s not going to happen with The Star.
I think the true death of the newspaper industry came when they could make enough income off of the ad revenue from national merchants that they no longer needed to reflect the values and interests of their local audience.
To many of us The Kansas City Star is an occupying force in our community, not an ally that we would defend. I suspect the day The Sun went out of business you could probably hear an audible cheer from many of the residents of Johnson County and it would be even more so were the demise of the Star to be announced.
I think readership will come back when the economy gets better. I’m tired of short blubs from TV. I also miss a lot of the details that the Star gives. I’m not subscribing now but I will when my finances are a little better. I know it seems like not much money but when you don’t have it …
That’s completely understandable, Harvey. Relatively speaking, the price of The Star — and a lot of other major metropolitan dailies — has skyrocketed in recent years. The full retail cost of The New York Times, daily and Sunday, is about $700 a year. I get it for about half that with a teacher’s discount (I sub in the Shawnee Mission District), but it’s still a lot.