Big is best

The slope down which Americas metropolitan newspapers are tumbling became steeper this week. On October 26th the Audit Bureau of Circulations...

The slope down which Americas metropolitan newspapers are tumbling became steeper this week. On October 26th the Audit Bureau of Circulations revealed that the Los Angeles Times had lost 11 per cent of its paying readers in the past year. Circulation at the Boston Globe tumbled by 18 per cent. At the San Francisco Chronicle it fell by 26 per cent.

Many small local newspapers fared better. Take,for example,the Oakland Press,a Michigan newspaper where circulation grew from 63,000 to 68,000. The paper deals with the minutiae of municipal water rates and sex scandals in the local school systemthe sort of thing that rarely makes the home page of Yahoo! News.

But the biggest headlines were made by newspapers with a national reach. Circulation at the Wall Street Journal,which includes paying online subscribers,rose to more than 2m,making it Americas biggest paper. Daily sales of the New York Times fell by 7 per centless than average,despite price increases. The Sunday paper lost just 2.7 per cent. The exception to the rule was the former top newspaper,USA Today,which is mostly distributed in hotels. A recession-induced dearth of business travellers helped drive circulation down by 17 per cent,but it ought to bounce back.

America is now a battleground between these three,with metropolitan papers suffering collateral damage. The New York Times,which this spring sold just 32 per cent of its daily papers in its home state down from 42 per cent in 2002 is now targeting the region around San Francisco Bay. For the past few weeks it has been running a twice-weekly Bay Area report inside the main newspaper. The Wall Street Journal plans a similar move in the area. Robert Thomson,the papers editor,says the next campaign may be for the Texas cities of Dallas and Houston,where the incumbents report steep circulation drops.

Metropolitan papers rely heavily on classified advertising,which has plummeted by 40 per cent in the past year,according to the Newspaper Association of America. Some of the loss is permanent: listings websites like Craigslist are strongest in big cities. The papers have responded by raising prices,abolishing bureaus and dropping readers in more distant suburbs,who are less alluring to advertisers. Metropolitan newspapers are thus turning into city newspapers,a blow to their future prospects,since virtually all the population growth in America is in the suburbs and exurbs.

Another source of change in the newspaper business is news. America is engaged in two foreign conflicts. It has an ambitious president,who was elected following a long,gripping national campaign. Mr Obamas rise has suited national cable networks,particularly Fox News,which is conducting a well-publicised battle with the White House. It suits the national papers,too.

The EconomistNewspaper Limited 2009