It’s not enough to prompt the staff at 18th and Grand to start singing “Happy Days Are Here Again,” but the latest figures from the newspaper Audit Bureau of Circulations do offer hope for better times — digitally speaking, anyway.
The figures, released yesterday, show that instead of dropping below the key 300,000 threshold, which seemed likely six months ago, The Kansas City Star’s Sunday circulation rose to nearly 310, 500.
In addition, Monday-to-Friday average circulation got its head back above 200,000 after falling below that benchmark in ABC’s September 2011 report.
That news on both fronts — Sunday and daily — must have Star publisher Mi-Ai Parrish and the other business-side executives breathing easier because those big, round benchmark figures are extremely important to advertisers. If The Star can stay above 200,000 daily and 300,000 Sunday and continue a gradual rise, it should be able to hold the line on print advertising prices, while waiting for digital-side circulation and advertising prices to move up.
Tuesday’s report showed that most newspapers across the country gained readers in the last six months, compared to the same period a year ago, primarily on the back of rising digital subscriptions. Nationally, average daily circulation was up nearly .7 percent for digital and print at the 618 papers reporting; Sunday circulation was up 5 percent at the 532 papers reporting.
In its report on the latest report, the Poynter Institute, a newspaper think tank in Florida, said that digital circulation now accounts for 14.2 percent of newspapers’ total circulation, compared to 8.7 percent in March 2011.
The New York Times reported a 73 percent year-to-year gain in circulation, propelled by the growth of its online subscription business, which it launched last year. In fact, The Times’ daily digital subscribers exceed its daily print subscribers.
The nationwide jump in circulation is partly explained by new ABC reporting rules. A paying subscriber who accesses The Times on different digital devices — everything from a smartphone to a tablet to a desktop computer — could be counted three times in a single day.
Come on, Bill, how 'bout a little smile?
At The Kansas City Star, Sunday circulation still has a long, likely impossible road back to the glory days of the 1950s, when Sunday circulation probably was between 400,000 and 500,000.
In this day and age, however, it’s good to be able to cheer even minor newspaper-circulation achievements.
The Star owes its Sunday statistical improvement to a combination of higher print sales and higher digital subscriptions. Surprisingly, print sales rose by nearly 5,000 over the September 2011 reporting period, while digital subscriptions went up about 5,000. The digital increase was not a surprise.
You must keep in mind, of course, that digital subscriptions are not nearly as profitable as print subscriptions because the bulk of newspaper revenue is in print-side advertising.
On the daily front, print-edition sales of The Star dropped by about 3,400 from the September 2011 report, but digital subscriptions rose by 4,300, pushing total weekday average circulation to 200,365.
Saturday circulation stayed about the same — about 205,000 — from September to March.
The March report marks the one-year anniversary of ABC rules changes that 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. Those changes gave all daily papers a boost at a point when circulation had fallen sharply for at least a decade.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Jim, do you have a link to the report? I can’t access the report on the ABC website, and I haven’t seen these figures anywhere else.
Alex — Contact Kammi Alteg at the Audit Burea of Circulations…kammi.altig@accessabc.com or 224-366-6365. She’s very helpful.
Jim, it’s a step in the right direction, but there’s certainly a long way to go before I’ll be singing “Happy Days Are Here Again” in light of either the situation at 18th & Grand or the economy in general. Today is the National Day of Prayer, so perhaps I’ll put in a request this evening at the church for a true revival in the fortunes of America’s old guard newspapers. Can’t hurt.