By: Jennifer Saba While circulation scams swirl around the newspaper industry, Merrill Lynch took an in-depth view of the nation's three largest papers and charted their progress based on September 2003 audited figures. The investment firm compared stats among USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times and found that out of all three papers, the Times sells about 90% of its copies at 50% or more of the cover price, "which is very commendable," the report said.
Meanwhile, USA Today sells the least amount of copies at 50% or more, revealing its reliance on third-party sales to hotels. The Journal falls in the middle with 70% of copies sold at 50% or more. Those figures include the Journal's online subscriptions. Taking those out, about 81% of copies are sold at 50% or more.
As newspapers whine about the declining readership of young adults the Times is making an effort to reach the demographic; it has the highest level of educational programs at 3.6% of circ, the report found. USA Today has 1.3% and the Journal, 0.5%.
The Times lags the Journal and USA Today in terms of national distribution. The paper is still heavily concentrated in the Mid-Atlantic region at 52%, though that percentage is down from 53.5% a year ago.
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