'Newsday' Circ Falls in Latest Audit

By: Jennifer Saba The Audit Bureau of Circulations today released its fourth and final audit on Newsday since the Melville, N.Y., paper has been under censure. For the six-month period ending September 2005, daily circulation at the paper dropped 5.9% to 431,975 copies and Sunday circ slipped 4.8% to 496,392 compared to the September 2004 period.

For the past two years, Newsday has been hobbled since it was revealed in June 2004 the paper inflated circulation by hundreds of thousands of copies. The Tribune-owned paper has since tried to regain favor with advertisers -- especially those that run inserts -- and stabilize its circulation.

Since the misstatement ABC censured Newsday requiring the paper to undergo audits every six months for two years (as opposed to annual audits). Newsday was also banished from the FAS-FAX for the first year. According to ABC, Newsday has completed its requirements under censure and will resume regular yearly audits starting for the 12-month period ending September 2006.

In the wake of the scandal, the paper has cut jobs and scaled back on its distribution and coverage of New York City.

Though Newsday failed to grow its overall circulation, there is some good news in the data. According to the most recent audit report, Newsday trimmed its daily other-paid circulation -- circulation considered least valuable by advertisers -- by roughly 24%. Most of the cuts came from Newspapers In Education copies.

The paper also reduced its reliance on daily discounted circulation, which fell 42% while increasing paid circulation sold at 50% or more by 20,717 copies. In fact, Newsday has more paid circulation in that category at 354,461 copies than it did for the September 2004 period (333,744 copies).

While this is the latest audit, Newsday reported last spring that the drop in circulation is subsiding. For the six-month period ending March 2006, daily circ was down 2.7% to 427,771 and Sunday was down 3.4% to 488,825.

After Newsday announced it puffed up circulation numbers, several other newspapers followed suit, including the Chicago Sun-Times and The Dallas Morning News. ABC censured those papers as well. Dallas will complete its censure with the release of its next audit report scheduled for the six-month period ending September 2006. The Chicago Sun-Times still has to undergo three more audits, according to ABC.