AJC ending weekday print editions

I wonder where Frederick is to chime in on this.

 

But I still enjoyed the heck out of reading the Sunday DP while on vacation in the Snowies last month.

I know digital is here and is the future. But to an old geezer like me, there's nothing better than sitting down and spending an hour or so with a Sunday paper. No way do I read the stuff I read in paper form those two Sundays in an online format.

 

This is where my Dad is. He has digital subs to all his papers and will read them there when the print copies are late or don't arrive. But he reads the papers from front to back. Basically impossible to do that online.

 

I used to buy the Sunday NYT, WaPo and AJC, sit in my recliner and read all day. It was an enjoyable experience.

 

It appears nothing came of this.

 

Think they were testing the waters to see what reaction they'd get?

 

Not yet. But the AJC has less than 46,000 in daily circulation and I am sure it is dropping fast. It is inevitable.

Print can not target an ad to a consumer like a digital ad. Newspapers have to offer the same ad to all the readers )with the exception of zones). Fifteen years ago papers could overcome because they would have a 30-35% penetration rate in a market and no other media outlet could match that. But teh AJC has a two per cent reach with its Monday-Saturday product.

 

I worked there once, but I am certain I have never personally paid to read the Star-Ledger.

But I do remember being eight years old, running with a dime in my hand, to the candy store to pick up a paper for my old man. Then he'd sit me on his lap in the Skylark and let me steer home.

 

Where is the best place to find newspaper circulation figures?

 

I don't know. I would like to know.

But I stumbled on this chart somewhere of the 25 leading papers:

Visualized: The Top 25 U.S. Newspapers by Daily Circulation (visualcapitalist.com)

The AJC is not in the top 25 so I based my post upon the assumption they just missed.

 

Gannett has a chart of the circulation of their 15 or so largest papers in the 2021 annual report on page 19. I would not be surprised if Lee had something similar in their annual report but I have not checked.

FWIW, Lee is no where near the basket case that Gannett is financially and operationally. Which is not to say that all is well at Lee. It is that bad at Gannett.

If Gannett does not stabilize their circulation revenue immediately they will stop generating enough they will stop generating enough cash to pay the interest on their debt. If revenue continues to decline six percent a year or so the company will be unable to fill that hole through cost costs.