So the latest magazine and newspaper readership and circulation figures are out and most publications’ numbers are down.
Quelle surprise! And with a recession on, too — go figure.
Let’s put the bloodbath into some sort of context.
Based on ABC circulation figures, here’s how our biggest-circulating newspapers fared (Audited Net Circulation to 31 December 2009 vs 12 months earlier):
- New Zealand Herald, down 5.8%
- Waikato Times, down 0.5%
- Dominion Post, down 4.3%
- The Press, down 2.4%
- Otago Daily Times, down 0.3%
- Southland Times, down 0.6%
Oh, and Rotorua’s Daily Post actually deserves a special mention for managing to increase its Net Circulation by 24 copies an issue, year on year. Not statistically significant, perhaps, but still a signal honour in comparison to the rest of the newspaper industry in 2009.
So how do these figures compare to global performances?
The UK also came out with national newspaper circulation results on Friday, and those results make far more depressing reading:
- The Times recorded the biggest year-on-year circulation fall of any UK national paper in January, down 17.69%
- The Daily Telegraph reported a 11.76% year-on-year decline
- The Guardian showed a 15.76% decline
- The Independent was down 13.78% year on year
- the Financial Times dropped 8.52% year on year
There — we feel better already!
[ Aye … sure is hard not to smile a bit ]