L.A. TIMES REPORTS A MAJOR LOSS IN CIRCULATION NUMBERS.Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Morning daily newspaper. Established in 1881, it was purchased and incorporated in 1884 by Harrison Gray Otis (1837–1917) under The Times-Mirror Co. (the hyphen was later dropped from the name). on Thursday announced one of the worst circulation losses ever for its weekday and Sunday editions You can improve this article by adding links to related material, within the existing text. After links have been created, remove this message. For more information, see the . For the year's first six months, the Times said average daily circulation was 902,164, a decline of 5.6 percent or 53,048 subscribers. Sunday delivery averaged 1.3 million papers, a drop of 6.3 percent or 86,984 papers. The announcement came as the Times' parent company, Chicago-based Tribune Co., announced a sharp decline in profit and as it deals with the problems caused by two of its properties inflating circulation numbers. ``Of course it's not good. It's a significant decrease in the Times' circulation,'' said John Morton
John Morton (c. 1420 – September 15, 1500) was an English cleric. , president of Morton Research, which specializes in the publishing industry. ``It will probably serve to moderate any rate increase they try to impose.'' Publisher John Puerner blamed the declines on the impact of the national Do Not Call law, which restricts businesses' telemarketing telemarketing, the practice of selling goods or services to customers by means of the telephone or of surveying consumer preferences in telephone conversations. efforts, and the reduction in third-party-sponsored home delivery and single copy bulk sales. ``Historically, the Los Angeles Times has been heavily dependent on telemarketing to drive home delivery circulation growth. The September declines primarily reflect the impact of the Do Not Call law,'' Puerner said in a statement. A spokeswoman said there would be no further comment. Tribune executives dispatched company auditors to the Times and its other papers to assess circulation accounting practices after two of its properties, Newsday and the Spanish-language Hoy Hoy, island, 13 mi (21 km) long and 6 mi (9.7 km) wide, off N Scotland, second largest of the Orkney Islands. It is located at the southwestern side of the Scapa Flow anchorage. , inflated circulation numbers. The company set aside $55 million to reimburse re·im·burse tr.v. re·im·bursed, re·im·burs·ing, re·im·burs·es 1. To repay (money spent); refund. 2. To pay back or compensate (another party) for money spent or losses incurred. advertisers who paid rates based on Newsday's and Hoy's inflated numbers. Company officials said circulation problems were confined to those two properties. ``Internal audits at our other large newspapers detected no evidence of circulation misstatements like those at Newsday,'' Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. Tribune Co. in its quarterly financial report said third-quarter profits fell 33 percent. The company earned $121.6 million, or 37 cents per share Cents per share The amount of a mutual fund's dividend or capital gains distributions that a shareholder will receive for each share owned. , in the third quarter, down from $182.3 million, or 53 cents per share, from the year-ago period. Revenues increased 2 percent, to $1.41 billion from $1.39 billion. The company also said circulation at the Chicago Tribune Chicago Tribune Daily newspaper published in Chicago. The Tribune is one of the leading U.S. newspapers and long has been the dominant voice of the Midwest. Founded in 1847, it was bought in 1855 by six partners, including Joseph Medill (1823–99), who made the paper fell 2.5 percent daily and 4 percent on Sunday during the year's first six months. Circulation figures released by the two papers are unaudited but have been submitted to the Audit Bureau of Circulations The Audit Bureau of Circulations is one of the several organizations of the same name operating in different parts of the world. It audits circulation, readership, and audience information for the magazines, newspapers, and other publications produced by . Audit Bureau spokeswoman Heidi Chen declined comment on the Times announcement. Last summer, the Audit Bureau imposed sanctions on Newsday and Hoy, including auditing the papers' circulation numbers twice a year instead of annually. For the year's first six months, the Daily News weekday circulation increased 0.02 percent to 178,404 copies, Saturday's increased 0.26 percent to 170,956 and Sunday's slipped 0.28 percent to 200,458. Gregory J. Wilcox, (818) 713-3743 greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion