By: E&P Staff In the September edition of the Morton-Groves Newsletter, industry analyst John Morton wrote that Newsday's recent article disclosing circulation antics ?would have been hilarious if they haven't been so outrageous and damaging to Newsday, such as staging phony street-hawking teams during visits by [the Audit Bureau of Circulation] auditors.?
Morton went on to note that part of the problem stemmed from ABC's decision in 2001 to let papers include copies sold at 25% of the rate base as part of paid circulation. Citing from the Newsday article that appeared earlier this week it's ?a change some critics said was designed to help newspapers disguise plummeting circulation counts.?
The Tribune Co. announced on Sept. 10 that circulation for Newsday would be far lower than previously thought by around 95,000 daily copies and roughly 116,000 Sunday copies for the six-month period ending March 2004 (thousands of copies lower for the 12-month period ending September 2003). Morton wrote that Newsday's reduced size would hurt the paper's stature, profitability and staffing. ?In all this is truly a low blow for Newsday and for the newspaper business as a whole.?
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