NEWSPAPER SALES FLAT

TOP NEWSPAPER SALES FLAT; L.A. TIMES DOWN, NY POST SURGES 22%
Mon Oct 29 2001 19:39:07 ET

Average weekday circulation of the nation's 20 biggest newspapers for the six months ended Sept. 30 were largely flat -- with top gains going to Rupert Murdoch's NEW YORK POST.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations unleashed its new stats Monday [% notes change from the same period last year]:

1. USA Today, 2,241,677, down 0.6 percent
2. The Wall Street Journal, 1,780,605, up 1.0 percent
3. The New York Times, 1,109,371, up 1.1 percent.
4. Los Angeles Times, 972,957, down 4.9 percent.
5. The Washington Post, 759,864, down 0.7 percent.
6. New York Daily News, 734,473, up 4.6 percent.
7. Chicago Tribune, 621,305, up 0.2 percent.
8. Newsday of New York's Long Island, 577,354 up 0.1 percent
9. Houston Chronicle, 551,854, up 1.1 percent
10. New York Post, 533,860, up 22 percent.
11. San Francisco Chronicle, 512,042, up 12 percent.
12. The Dallas Morning News, 509,562, down 0.8 percent
13. Chicago Sun-Times, 480,920, up 1.9 percent.
14. The Boston Globe, 471,199, up 0.9 percent
15. The Arizona Republic, 451,288, up 0.1 percent
16. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 410,547, up 0.7 percent.
17. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 376,765, up 0.7 percent
18. Detroit Free Press, 371,261, up 1.2 percent
19. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 365,154, down 8.8 percent
20. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland 359,978, down 1.3 percent

In the top 50 markets, 54.3 percent of all adults read a newspaper yesterday, according to the report.

Top 10 Daily Newspaper Readership Markets (among the top 50 U.S. markets)

1. Hartford/New Haven (65.3 percent)
2. West Palm Beach (63.8 percent)
3. Boston (63.6 percent)
4. Cleveland (62.2 percent)
5. New York (62.1 percent)
6. Providence/New Bedford (62.0 percent)
7. Tampa/St. Petersburg/Sarasota (61.7 percent)
8. Harrisburg/Lancaster/Lebanon/York (61.0 percent)
9. Philadelphia (60.4 percent)
10. Pittsburgh (60.3 percent)