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Newspaper sales down precipitously

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 27, 2009

NEW YORK - The decline in U.S. newspaper circulation is accelerating as the industry struggles with defections to the Internet and tumbling ad revenue.

Figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that average daily circulation dropped 10.6 percent in the April-September period from the same six-month span in 2008. That was greater than the 7.1 percent decline in the October 2008-March 2009 period and the 4.6 percent drop in the April-September period of 2008.

Sunday circulation fell 7.5 percent in the latest six-month span.

Locally, The Tampa Tribune's daily circulation fell 18.7 percent to 152,569, and its Sunday circulation slipped 2 percent to 252,953 . The St. Petersburg Times reported a 10.7 drop in daily circulation to 240,147. Its Sunday numbers fell 10 percent to 370,050.

As expected, The Wall Street Journal has surpassed USA Today as the top-selling newspaper in the United States. The Journal's average Monday-Friday circulation edged up 0.6 percent to 2.02 million - making it the only daily newspaper in the top 25 to see an increase.
USA Today had its worst decline ever, dropping more than 17 percent to 1.90 million.

The New York Times stayed in third place at 927,851, down 7.3 percent from the same period of 2008.

Of the top 25 dailies, the San Francisco Chronicle saw the worst circulation decline, falling 25.8 percent to 251,782. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., and The Dallas Morning News both fell 22.2 percent.

Tribune editor Dale Hokrein contributed to this report.

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