Circulation is plummeting at newspapers in Virginia.
The Times-Dispatch reported today that its average weekday circulation for the six-month period was 133,161, down 17.2 percent from 160,899 in the same period of 2008.
Circulation at the Roanoke Times dropped 11 percent to 77,816.
The Virginian-Pilot’s weekday circulation from April to September was 164,454, down 5.8 percent from 174,572 in the same period last year.
At The Daily Press, the newspaper for Newport News, weekday average dropped 12.5 percent, to 66,211 from 75,681.
The Washington Post lost 6 percent. Meanwhile, the average for newspapers across the country was a decrease of 10 percent.
This is a worrisome trend for the newspaper business because even though online readership is growing, media companies can’t sell nearly as many ads online.
The Washington Post is reporting that, “Ads on newspaper Internet sites sell for pennies on the dollar compared with ads in their ink-on-paper cousins.”
Aaron Kremer is the BizSense editor. Please send news tips to Editor@richmondbizsense.com.
Well duh! When the product is bad (i.e. naked partisanship, lazy reporting, etc.) then people stop buying it.
With the exception of Jeff Shapiro’s reporting on VITA in the T-D, there is no real reporting going on at any of the newspapers named in the article.
The RTD is not a bad product, it’s just not free.
That’s why readership is declining at the RTD, in Norfolk, Roanoke, Seattle, Boston, NY, etc. Simple economics along w/nonstop access to information from a plethora of outlets that didn’t exist 5 years ago is what’s causing the downturn in readership. Businesses advertise on line because it’s more cost-effective and it’s measurable.