By: Joel Davis Both dailies in the Honolulu newspaper war are boasting of circulation gains since they killed their joint-operating agreement (JOA) March 15 -- and each paper is suspicious of the other's claims.
Citing an audit of the period from March 15 to July 1 that was done by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC),
The Honolulu Advertiser, owned by Gannett Co. Inc., reported daily circulation has risen 38%, to 151,808.
Don Kendall, president of Oahu Publications, local parent of the rival
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, countered that most of the increase comes from promotions, such as the one that lets the
Advertiser's Sunday-only subscribers add either the daily?s morning or new afternoon edition free for 24 weeks.
Advertiser General Manager Dennis Francis acknowledged that most of the gains came via promotions, but said as many as 4,000 new subscribers are regular paying customers.
The
Star-Bulletin has a new 70,000-circulation Sunday issue that has cut into the
Advertiser's Sunday circulation, which has dropped 4.3%, to 176,727, though Francis said the drop is smaller than expected, considering the
Advertiser now has a Sunday competitor.
Citing an internally produced, non-ABC audit, Kendall said the
Star-Bulletin's post-JOA daily circulation is at about 66,000, a 10% hike. However, Francis is skeptical of those numbers because they were not independently confirmed. "It?s not verifiable," he said.
In fact, the ABC has reprimanded the
Star-Bulletin, saying that the internal audit it
offered to the public could be confused with an ABC audit. Kendall said there was no intent to deceive and that the wording in question has been changed.
Kendall said he is pleased with the
Star-Bulletin's post-JOA performance. "We're
not a takeover, we're a start-up. ? All we inherited from the old
Star-Bulletin is 77
editorial employees."
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