Dallas Morning News circulation down 14%

by PegNews wire

DALLAS — The Dallas Morning News today made public a Publisher's Statement for the six-month period ended March 31, 2007. For this period, the newspaper reported a daily circulation of 411,919 and 563,079 for Sunday, representing a reduction of 14.3% and 13.3%, respectively, compared with the six-month period ended March 31, 2006.

Approximately seven points of the daily variance and eight points of the Sunday variance reflect the strategic decision to reduce the paper's distribution perimeter to roughly 100 miles outside the Dallas-Fort Worth area as well as planned reductions in third party circulation. These results are consistent with internal goals set by The Dallas Morning News in late 2006.

Photo not provided by the DMN

Although readership may be plummeting, other uses for the newspaper are becoming more common

"Our continuing strategy is to concentrate on acquiring and retaining quality circulation and readership that provide advertisers with the strongest possible return on investment rather than increasing circulation with subscribers having marginal value who are expensive to attract and retain," said Jim Moroney, publisher of The Dallas Morning News.

The Dallas Morning News has completed several initiatives focused on acquiring and retaining a quality subscriber base, including the implementation of several content changes in January 2007, with expansion of Section A and the Business section and revamped Lifestyles sections. Additionally, The Dallas Morning News implemented a Customer Value Management system in October 2006 that accumulates market intelligence to provide a complete view of each customer to serve their needs better and provide advertisers with opportunities to reach very targeted audiences. Since implementation of these initiatives, product-related subscription stops have significantly declined and subscriber churn has stabilized.

Moroney added, "We are pleased with the efforts we have made to date in increasing the quality of our audience and will continue to announce initiatives aimed at acquiring and retaining subscribers who provide maximum value for our advertisers."

Source: Dallas Morning News

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Sanders Kaufman, says:

This story on DMN's lost circulation was very relevant to me.

The week before the report came out, I received a very aggressive call from one of their obnoxious telemarketers.

I told him, "DMN is a very unethical newspaper and I wouldn't recommend anyone give them money for what they write".

The telemarketer responded, "yes, but did you know... blah, blah, blah". It was like I was talking to a tape recorder.

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2 years, 7 months ago
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sisterhazel, says:

Ah, but Sanders, isn't it great to know that you are among that elite group that they refer to as "subscribers who provide maximum value for our advertisers"?

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2 years, 7 months ago
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Todd Maternowski, says:

Here's an update from the <i>Dallas Business Journal</i>, which compares the Morning New's 14% decline to other newspapers in the country and finds it's by far the biggest drop:

http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/...

Also note that not all newspapers are in decline, but the average was a 2% drop over last year.