National Post loses one-fifth of daily paid circulation

[This post has been updated]The National Post has lost a fifth of its daily paid circulation (20.22% or 40,000 copies) in Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures for the six months ended March 31. In 2008, its daily paid circ was 199,402; in 2009, 159,089. Its Saturday average was down 18.8% or 39,574 copies). In 2008 it was 209,595; in 2009, 170,021.

The Globe and Mail average weekday paid circ was down 2.7% (from 312,685 to 304,265). Its Saturday circulation was down 2.4%, from 385,703 to 376,467, compared to during the same period in 2008.

Despite the decline among national papers, local and regional dailies across the country did considerably better, according to a story in Media in Canada.

Meanwhile, Quebec readers appear thirsty for local news with the Montreal Gazette's weekday paid circ increasing by 13.05% to 176,976 readers, compared to 156,542 in 2008. Its Saturday circ also increased from 166,700 to 185,344. Weekday circ of Montreal's Le Devoir rose by 2.82%, and La Presse also increased by 1.19% from 205,997 to 208,439. Its Saturday edition, however, had a slight decrease from 273,858 to 271,289. Another Quebec daily that increased circ is Le Soleil at 0.52%.

The outlook on print seems bright in British Columbia too, where the Vancouver Sun saw an increase in weekday paid circ of 2.85%, to 177,793 from 172,874 in 2008. Its competitor, the Vancouver Province, also increased weekday circ by 2.16%, to 164,908 from 161,423.

In Alberta, Canwest's Calgary Herald raised its weekday paid circ by 3.58%, from 128,526 to 133,127. The Edmonton Journal saw similar success with an increase of 1.99% from 125,589 to 123,140.

In Manitoba, the Winnipeg Free Press's weekday circ rose by 1.86% to 108,884; in Nova Scotia, the Halifax Chronicle-Herald increased weekday paid circ by 1.33% to 108,884.

Overall, the Canadian newspaper market as audited by ABC fares much better than the United States, where only two of the top 25 dailies are seeing an increase in circulation, and it is by less than 1%. The New York Times's average weekday circ decreased by 1.7%, the LA Times dropped by 7.49% and the Chicago Tribune decreased by 4.5%.

[UPDATE: Phyllise Gelfand, Canwest Publishing’s director of communications told Marketing magazine that the company made strategic changes in the last year that it knew would have a negative impact on total circulation.

“What you are seeing is the result of a targeted circulation strategy,” she said. “It is exactly where we expected to be,” she said.

Canwest pulled the National Post out of some markets including Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Regina to focus on six core markets of Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.]