Newspaper circulation

From Free net encyclopedia

A newspaper's circulation is the number of copies distributed on an average day. It is one of the principal factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulation, since some newspapers are distributed without cost. Readership figures are usually higher than circulation figures because of the common assumption that a typical copy of the newspaper is read by more than one person.

1 U.S.
2 World's Highest Selling Newspapers
3 English-language daily papers
4 See also
5 External links

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U.S.

In the United States, the heyday of the newspaper industry was the 1940s, after which the percentage of Americans reading newspapers began to decline with the increased competion from radio and television as news outlets. Because the population of the United States was increasing, absolute circulation numbers continued to increase until the 1970s, when they remained stable until starting an absolute decline in the 1990s.

In the U.S., newspaper ciculation numbers are reported to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, an agency which audits circulation numbers. The standards the Audit Bureau of Circulations uses for determining circulation have been liberalized over the past two decades. In 2001, standard changes reduced the price threshold for determining if a newspaper is sold versus provided as a gift or donation which in turn meant that circulation numbers counted newspapers which had previously been excluded from circulation numbers. One consequence allowed for the inclusion of counts of newspapers distributed through bulk sales to hotels and airlines, which makes a large difference in the circulation of some newspapers, such as USA Today.

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World's Highest Selling Newspapers

Yomiuri Shimbun (読売新聞), Japan - 10.11 million per day. (2005)
Asahi Shimbun (朝日新聞), Japan - 8.26 million per day. (2004)
Bild-Zeitung, Germany - 3.97 million per day (tabloid).

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the daily circulation of the Soviet newspaper Trud exceeded 21,500,000 in 1990, while the Soviet weekly Argumenty i fakty boasted the circulation of 33,500,000 in 1991.

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English-language daily papers

Best-selling non-US English language daily newspapers as of 2002, with circulation:

The Sun 3,541,002 United Kingdom (tabloid)
The Daily Mail 2,342,982 United Kingdom (middle-market tabloid)
The Daily Mirror 2,148,058 United Kingdom (tabloid)
The Times of India 2,144,842 India (broadsheet)
The Hindustan Times 1,857,000 India
The Daily Telegraph 923,815 United Kingdom (broadsheet)
The Daily Express 916,055 United Kingdom (middle-market tabloid)
The Hindu 853,475 India
The Daily Star 819,203 United Kingdom (tabloid)
The Times 619,682 United Kingdom (then broadsheet, now compact)

Best-selling U.S. daily newspapers as of September 30, 2005, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, [1] with highest circulation of the week (usually the Sunday edition, if the paper prints seven days a week). Under ABC rules, this includes only papers sold for at least a portion of the cover price: