From Editor and Publisher:
For the six-month period ending Sept. 30. Preliminary figures as filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
| Newspaper | Monday through Friday % change |
Sunday % change |
| USA TODAY | +1.04 | N/A |
| WALL STREET JOURNAL | -1.53 | N/A |
| NEW YORK TIMES | -4.51 | -7.59 |
| LOS ANGELES TIMES | +0.50 | -5.11 |
| NEW YORK DAILY NEWS | -1.73 | -6.81 |
| NEW YORK POST | -5.24 | -5.10 |
| WASHINGTON POST | -3.23 | -3.89 |
| CHICAGO TRIBUNE | -2.90 | -2.14 |
| HOUSTON CHRONICLE | -0.13 | +0.09 |
| NEWSDAY | -5.62 | -4.33 |
| ARIZONA REPUBLIC | -3.75 | -4.64 |
| DALLAS MORNING NEWS | -7.68 | -7.64 |
| SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE | -2.29 | -0.66 |
| BOSTON GLOBE | -6.66 | -6.54 |
| STAR-LEDGER OF NEWARK | -2.78 | -5.57 |
| PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER | +2.31 | -2.92 |
| STAR TRIBUNE OF MINNEAPOLIS | -6.53 | -4.34 |
| CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER | -0.81 | -0.15 |
| DETROIT FREE PRESS | -2.61 | -4.28 |
| ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION | -9.08 | -9.16 |
| PORTLAND OREGONIAN | -0.43 | -1.16 |
| ST. PETERSBURG TIMES | +0.04 | +0.85 |
| ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH | -4.18 | +0.43 |
While this particular survey was for a recent 6-month period these numbers are nothing new to anyone that’s been watching readership at the nation’s major newspapers.
US newspapers, by and large, are written and edited by Liberals. Most of the articles pushed off as “news” are more than likely “opinion pieces”. And any news item that showcases a Conservative idea in a good light will, most likely, never make it to the final print edition.
Add to that the fact that the “news” you read in a newspaper can be anywhere from 6 to 24 hours old and you see why many people are getting their news real-time off the internet.
In the old days, the agenda-setting and the issue-framing was a closed shop. You had the big media organizations, and their reporters were basically controlling the issue-framing and agenda-setting. Now that power to frame issues and set agendas is democratized and open for all to see … and many aren’t liking what they see.
Astute readers notice space padding with repetition of information, more advertisement and less news, and articles stolen from wire services and other papers. There is very little true journalism going on in most newspapers. Newspapers are stuck with the massive, costly infrastructure to make and deliver a product that has virtually no relevance to the audience that its sponsors - retail, entertainment and automobile advertisers - most covet: 18- to 35-year-olds. And this demographic is far more in tune with electronic media than ever before.
Of particular is my local fish-wrapper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, an ardent Liberal stalwart. It has only been very recently that they’ve even allowed any Conservative opinion within its pages, and only then in a few token editorials. Their main “news” stories are still rife with Leftist slant, and I’m quite happy to see their numbers consistently plummet.
