US dailies' report double-digit drops in newsprint expense, weak ad sales

摘要

Five major daily newspaper publishers reported higher first quarter circulation revenues than a year ago thanks to increased prices for print subscriptions and copies and increased digital-access revenue. The increased circulation revenues were in line with a recent Newspaper Association of America study showing significant growth in bundled print-digital and digital-only sales (P&PW, Apr. 12, p. 11). But there wasn't much call for back-slapping, since average growth amounted to only 2.6%, compared with an almost 6.3% average decline in ad revenues year-over-year.