Top Gainers in New FAS-FAX in Key 'Total Audience' Numbers

By: Jennifer Saba Certainly print circulation numbers for the six months ending September 2008 are just as bleak as they have been in the past several years. And yet there is some good news to come out of this report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

This period marks the first time that Audience-FAX numbers are comparable for print, online and the net combined audience. This gives the industry a sense of how newspapers are covering the market when both the online and print editions are considered.

It?s an important move because declines in the print edition should be understood in the context of online readership and this provides a telling yardstick.

Scarborough Research provides the following data in the Audience-FAX: The past seven-day print readership, the past 30-day online readership, and the net combined audience.

The report also provides the average of total unique users ?- newspapers can submit the data of their choice ?- for the six-month period.

In this Audience-FAX report, a total of 190 newspapers participated. ABC breaks them out into two groups: tier 1, which accounts for the top 80 or so markets, and tier 2, which accounts for all other markets.

One hundred and two dailies fall in the tier 1 group and 74 fall in tier 2.

ABC provided E&P with a list of newspapers in tier 1 that made the most increases in net combined audience. Below are the top 25 gainers based on the designated market area. The percent change is for the same period ending in September 2007.
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GREENWICH TIME -- 107,512 -- 22.13%
STAMFORD ADVOCATE -- 186,290 -- 20.01%
LAKELAND LEDGER -- 369,617 -- 16.98%
BIRMINGHAM NEWS -- 756,331 -- 10.34%
SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE -- 372,316 -- 7.70%

ALBANY TIMES UNION -- 491,345 -- 6.62%
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES -- 1,278,624 -- 5.68%
TAMPA TRIBUNE & TIMES -- 1,289,782 -- 5.68%
RIVERSIDE PRESS-ENTERPRISE -- 925,128 -- 5.62%
TREASURE COAST NEWS/ PRESS-TRIBUNE -- 383,040 -- 5.58%

FORT MYERS NEWS-PRESS -- 402,384 -- 5.35%
WILKES-BARRE TIMES LEADER -- 186,487 -- 4.89%
HOUSTON CHRONICLE -- 2,396,994 -- 4.33%
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS -- 1,138,453 -- 4.27%
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN -- 851,896 -- 4.27%

RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER -- 855,369 -- 4.17%
PENSACOLA NEWS JOURNAL -- 309,749 -- 3.83%
GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE -- 296,558 -- 3.75%
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS HERALD -- 934,367 -- 3.74%
CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS -- 366,577 -- 3.66%

PORTLAND OREGONIAN -- 1,363,564 -- 3.62%
SACRAMENTO BEE -- 1,254,391 -- 3.27%
ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION -- 2,577,561 -- 3.10%
INDIANAPOLIS STAR -- 1,123,198 -- 3.08%
FRESNO BEE -- 683,119 -- 2.74%