'Times-Picayune' Reports Circ for First Time Since Katrina: It Has Plunged By About 30%

By: E&P Staff For the first time since Hurricane Katrina hit in late August 2005, The Times-Picayune in New Orleans reported it's paid circulation in a FAS-FAX, released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The numbers, not surprisingly, are not sweet, given the mass exodus from the city. The paper has lost almost one-third of its print readers in that time, the latest numbers reveal.

Daily circ for that paper for the six months ending Sept. 30 averaged 179,912 and Sunday is 199,970.

The last report for FAS-FAX, for the period ending March 30, 2005, found daily circ for the paper at 261,573 and Sunday at 288,000. Resisting industry trends, at that point daily circ had fallen just a bit in the previous year, and Sunday had gained a little.

Now? Since that last report in 2005 the paper has lost 82,000 daily readers and 89,000 on Sundays.

On the oterh hand: some large metros elsewhere have suffered nearly as greatly -- without battling the aftermath of a hurricane and flooding.