Three TX Newspapers Among Top 15 Audience Gainers in Country

by: Phillip Martin, Progress Texas

Mon Apr 27, 2009 at 09:55 AM CDT

From Editor & Publisher, we get the news that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Houston Chronicle, and the Austin American-Statesman are among the top 15 newspapers to have gained in audience from this time last year. They actually list the top 25, but all the TX papers are in the top 15. From E&P:

Here are the top 25 dailies that had the biggest gain in audience when taking print and online readership into account. The papers are ranked by net combined audience (past seven days in print and 30 days online), according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the six months ending March 2009 compared to the same period in March 2008.

1. GREENWICH (CONN.) TIME -- 111,824 -- 30.74%
2. THE BIRMINGHAM (ALA.) NEWS -- 781,047 -- 11.85%
3. THE TIMES-PICAYUNE, NEW ORLEANS -- 820,374 -- 11.72%
4. WILKES-BARRE (PA.) TIMES LEADER -- 196,229 -- 10.45%
5. STATEN ISLAND (N.Y.) ADVANCE -- 397,412 -- 9.93%
   
   
6. ALLENTOWN (PA.) MORNING CALL -- 511,463 -- 9.17%
7. TIMES UNION, ALBANY, N.Y. -- 506,929 -- 8.68%
8. CHARLOTTE (N.C.) OBSERVER -- 1,074,856 -- 8.36%
9. TRIBUNE-REVIEW, GREENSBURG, PA. -- 741,953 -- 7.34%
10. FORT WORTH (TEXAS) STAR-TELEGRAM -- 1,236,205 -- 7.09%
    
    
11. THE PATRIOT-NEWS, HARRISBURG, PA. -- 496,700 -- 6.45%
12. HOUSTON CHRONICLE -- 2,507,835 -- 6.13%
13. ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES -- 1,297,866 -- 6.09%
14. AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN -- 861,105 -- 5.97%
15. NAPLES (FLA.) DAILY NEWS -- 265,181 -- 5.97% 

The key, of course, is that these figures combine print and online readership. Not sure if you're counted twice if you read the print version and the online version (I imagine you are -- I don't know how they'd control that unless it was a survey, and these are raw figures). In any case, it gets to the quirk of the newspaper industry's problem:

They have plenty of readers. In fact, they have more readers. And as much as some want to wail and moan about the internet and the economic crisis, those aren't the real reasons why the newspaper industry is flailing. Newspaper industry leaders were aware of the coming rise of the internet over a decade ago, and basically sat on their hands. The recent economic crisis merely exacerbated problems that had existed for years -- (1) too many editors on staff, (2) companies demanding too large of a profit, and (3) companies refusing to plan for higher gas prices and increased cost of shipping/cutting their product -- paper.

Most political forces aren't helping matters...though I'd argue there are different levels of blame. Democrats get mad at things like this:

1) Reporters refusing to stand up to government (Part 1): Judith Miller
2) The Washington Post whining that they didn't get to ask an A-Rod question at a press conference
3) Political reporting that reinforces lies
4) Reporters refusing to stand up to government (Part 2): Spies
5) Ridiculous support for unqualified candidates

I'll stop there out of mercy for the newspaper industry. But that's how Democrats criticize the newspaper industry. Republicans, on the other hand...

The evisceration of the Fairness Doctrine in the 1980s by conservative Republicans allowed the rise of Rush Limbaugh, who then promoted more conservative Republican policies such as further media consolidation to spread Rush to more channels across the board, along with increased capital to fund more right-wing talk radio. 

And...

In any case -- despite their faults and their attackers (those both fair and not so fair), the people are still going to traditional sources of news. They may also be getting their news from the internet -- which the latest Pew Report clearly stated -- but there is still a demand for information from traditional sources of news.

Tomorrow, I'll look at the absolute wrong approach, and hopefully on Wednesday or Thursday talk about the better approach. In the mean time, feel free to discuss your thoughts about all of this in the comments.