Last Updated: March 27, 2000
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Circulation
Circulation numbers compel change
Whether good or bad, September’s report reveals some
innovations and disappointments at several newspapers; some circulation
managers, editors team up to boost numbers
By Carl Crothers
Tom Scarritt and Toby Pearson are unabashed teammates. In fact, they
work so closely together at The Birmingham (Ala.) News they asked to be
interviewed together in a conference call for this story.
“Toby and I have agreed we have a mission to sell more papers and keep
them sold,” Scarritt says.
“It all starts with mutual respect and honesty,” Pearson says.
Such working relationships are common in newsrooms, but in this case
Scarritt is the News’ editor and Pearson the circulation director. They
credit their close cooperation, which has trickled down to their staffs,
for the News’ daily circulation gain of 2.1 percent (to 152,007) in the
latest Audit Bureau of Circulations FAS-FAX report for the six-month period
that ended Sept. 30.
The News was one of only a relatively few dailies that showed a shoe-leather
circulation gain (not one stimulated by price slashing or extraordinary
market expansion) in daily numbers. Overall, newspapers took a drubbing,
down 0.7 percent daily and Sunday over the same period in 1998, according
to analysis of the ABC report by the Newspaper Association of America.
NAA found that circulation declined in every category except among the
largest newspapers, those over 500,000 circulation (up 0.2 percent). Overall,
circulation at dailies between 250,000 and 500,000 declined 0.2 percent;
100,000 to 250,000 dropped 0.5 percent; 50,000 to 100,000 declined 1.1
percent; 25,000 to 50,000 fell 1.5 percent; and those under 25,000 were
also off 1.5 percent.
Not so long ago, the ebb and flow of newspaper circulation was reduced
to a simplistic rub that characterized the cool relationship between the
newsroom and other departments: If circulation grew, circulation or marketing
got the credit; if it fell, it was the newsroom’s fault. That attitude
no doubt persists at some papers, but most editors and circulation managers
today understand that many factors affect starts and stops.
Editors at the News have worked shifts in the circulation department’s
telemarketing area to “understand how they work,” Scarritt says. Editors
also discuss major stories with circulation managers as they are developed.
Pearson says editors stop him in the parking lot to ask how the numbers
look.
“We’re creating a multilevel awareness,” Pearson says. He noted a proposed
gardening section that was developed jointly by circulation and news to
boost Thursday readership. “They (editors) have just been incredibly instrumental
in allowing us to do some strategic stuff.”
Close cooperation between the newsroom and circulation is a common theme
at papers that showed circulation gains.
“I’ve always thought editors should pay attention to circulation numbers,”
says Andy Rieger, managing editor of The Norman (Okla.) Transcript, which
gained 1.4 percent daily (to 13,943) and 12.8 percent Sunday (to 17,086).
“What I do impacts what he’s trying to do in circulation very much,”
Rieger says, noting that he reviews all circulation stop cards, notifies
circulation when new features are planned and discusses circulation with
his staff of 21 covering the hometown of the University of Oklahoma. And
circulation performance is a part of his bonus formula, he says.
“I think it’s a good thing. You’ve got to listen to your community,”
he says. The bonus “is one thing that will make you do that.”
Joe Worley, executive editor of the Tulsa (Okla.) World, isn’t so sure.
“I would have some problem with that.” But he says, “Clearly, I think every
editor out there is more involved” with marketing and circulation.
The family-owned World declined 5.6 percent daily to 149,292 and lost
3.6 percent Sunday to 209,392.
“Sometimes newspapers do a lousy job of marketing the value in our products,”
Worley says. Promotional advertising is not specific enough and is heavy
on feel-good or image advertising, not specifics, he says.
Worley serves on a committee at his newspaper that includes the advertising
and circulation directors, a forum where, he says, “you can air complaints.”
“What I think I can do is think about product improvement. Information
is so readily available.” The content of a newspaper must be “personal,
pertinent and useful – more useful than anybody else’s.”
Editors as a species still believe they have a sixth sense about what
readers want, but research and marketing are becoming more common tools
for newsrooms, especially at small- and mid-sized papers that have been
slow to recognize the need or consider the expense.
“Editors have heard me say a thousand times over that we are in retail,”
says Michael Lloyd, editor of The Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press, where daily
circulation gained 1.2 percent daily to 141,643 and Sunday was up 1.7 percent
(to 193,838). “We ask: Would you read this? A newspaper is not required
reading.”
The Press’ circulation has been up for better than a year, Lloyd says,
due in part to a growing economy and an energetic circulation director.
But research that showed that readers were more interested in issues of
“universal” appeal on section fronts led to some unique design changes.
The Press changed its lineup on its sports front to emphasize national
sports, the Detroit Lions, for example, over high school sports. But instead
of relegating prep coverage to inside pages, they created a second front
on the back page for local sports. A similar change was made with entertainment
coverage.
“The research was right,” Lloyd said. “The numbers are responding, and
we’re not getting complaints.”
Lloyd is also part of a newspaper-wide management team, and he compliments
the paper’s circulation managers for their interest in the quality of the
paper.
“I think the single biggest thing is to work with circulation so they
care about it (the newspaper) as much as news.”
At the Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner, Executive Editor Cherie Beers, a veteran
of 18 years at the New York Times-owned daily, credits strong growth in
her market for much of the paper’s impressive circulation gains. The Star-Banner
gained 2,293 daily to 48,822, or 4.9 percent, and 2,379 Sunday to 52,471,
or plus 4.7 percent.
She also recognizes an innovative slick monthly Sunday magazine the
paper launched in January as part of its “Celebrate 2000” community outreach
project with pushing Sunday sales higher, a feat particularly noteworthy
with a Sunday rack price of $1.25.
The trim tabloid monthly magazine, a rare feature for a paper the size
of the Star-Banner, has run as high as 72 pages and is a success in every
way, she says. Its centerpiece news and enterprise features, written by
staff reporters, “bring national issues home.” Topics have included medical
advances, Y2K and the depth of religious faith in the region.
“We think it’s an important thing for our communities. Continually,
you must look for new ways to deliver the news,” Beers says.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock decided to push into
fast-developing northwestern Arkansas in 1998. The paper built
a new printing plant and opened a 45-person newsroom in Bentonville, 200
miles from the main office.
The Democrat-Gazette grew to 175,145 daily in the latest report period,
a gain of 1,829, or 1.1 percent, and gained 2,606, or 0.95 percent, on
Sunday (to 276,110) on the strength of the expansion, Executive Editor
Griffin Smith says.
Smith relies on basic journalism values to guide his newsroom. He eschews
marketing committees and knee-jerk responses to circulation trends and
fads.
“We thoughtfully consider how we might serve our market,” he says. “Our
experience has been to commit journalism every day and hope for the best.”
In Charleston, S.C., Larry Tarleton, promoted to chief operating officer
and assistant publisher from executive editor at The Post and Courier,
is counting on initiatives in news to pull his paper out of a slump that
followed a 1998 rate increase. While the increase was just 50 cents per
month, gradual losses occurred, he says, and never came back.
The paper dropped 3.7 percent daily, or 4,038, to 105,296, and saw a
similar decline on Sunday, 3.8 percent, or 4,465, to 118,077, in the FAS-FAX
report.
On top of the rate increase, the prosperous economy in Charleston has
created a shortage of carriers, making service a problem, Tarleton said.
To combat the losses, the paper redesigned six weekly zoned editions,
added a color weather page, and expanded its TV listings. Now, circulation
and the newsroom are talking about single-copy sales, re-examining the
value of skyboxes and trying to find common ground to attract new readers.
“We’re doing better now,” he says. “Everyone realizes we’re all in this
together.”
Crothers is executive editor of the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal.
