By: Jennifer Saba Newsday is still struggling with the aftermath of its massive circulation debacle, now cleaning up false starts and, in some extreme cases, the deceased from its subscriber database.
According to an article in Newsday today, reporters Mark Harrington and James Madore discovered that roughly 3% of the paper's circulation is still questionable. In one instance the reporters tracked down a "subscriber" who had been dead since 1983.
"We have cleared up the majority of the records," Paul Barbetta, Newsday's newly appointed circulation vice president, told the paper. "It's an ongoing process."
The story also reveals that many subscribers in the database are listed as "Mr. Occupant." The paper's management said that all of those listed as such have now been deleted. In addition, many of those in the database had phone numbers that have been disconnected or they had moved away from their home. One woman, Betty White, showed up as customer who used credit cards for billing, even though she told the paper she didn't own a credit card.
The story said that, "six of 55 [home-delivery] agents had discrepancies with a quarter to half or more of their sampled subscribers. Another 10 to 15 had problems with up to 4% of subscribers while the rest -- a majority -- had discrepancies with less than 1% of polled subscribers."
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