You can’t escape the USA today – it being election day.
So on the back of that I thought I’d have a quick look at the leading papers in the US and see how they are fairing against the previous year.
They take a slightly different approach their ABC data as they combine the daily press circulation and the number of registered (ie access to restricted material) users.
On the face of it, the press looks like it’s in a very healthy position with eight of the top 14 papers having a better year than last. However it you look at the print editions, not one of them recorded an increase but all but one recorded an increase in their digital offering.
| Paper | Print ’12 | Digital ’12 | Total ’12 | Print ’11 | Digital ’11 | Total ’11 | Print +/- | Digital +/- | Total +/- |
| Wall Street Journal | 1,499,204 | 794,594 | 2,293,798 | 1,558,700 | 537,469 | 2,096,169 | -3.82% | 47.84% | 9.43% |
| USA Today | 1,627,526 | 86,307 | 1,713,833 | 1,731,846 | 52,396 | 1,784,242 | -6.02% | 64.72% | -3.95% |
| New York Times | 717,513 | 896,352 | 1,613,865 | 770,586 | 380,003 | 1,150,589 | -6.89% | 135.88% | 40.26% |
| Los Angeles Times | 489,792 | 151,577 | 641,369 | 534,843 | 38,155 | 572,998 | -8.42% | 297.27% | 11.93% |
| New York Daily News | 389,270 | 146,605 | 535,875 | 440,236 | 165,441 | 605,677 | -11.58% | -11.39% | -11.52% |
| San Jose Mercury News | 486,681 | 43,318 | 529,999 | 491,903 | 35,665 | 527,568 | -1.06% | 21.46% | 0.46% |
| New York Post | 344,755 | 178,113 | 522,868 | 441,201 | 70,866 | 512,067 | -21.86% | 151.34% | 2.11% |
| Washington Post | 434,693 | 27,535 | 462,228 | 480,310 | 27,155 | 507,465 | -9.50% | 1.40% | -8.91% |
| Chicago Sun-Times | 361,523 | 70,932 | 432,455 | 389,353 | 11.07% | ||||
| Denver Post | 236,223 | 176,446 | 412,669 | 268,811 | 84,304 | 353,115 | -12.12% | 109.30% | 16.87% |
| Chicago Tribune | 388,848 | 23,112 | 411,960 | 425,370 | -3.15% | ||||
| Dallas Morning News | 345,342 | 64,788 | 410,130 | 363,720 | 45,922 | 409,642 | -5.05% | 41.08% | 0.12% |
| Newsday | 278,369 | 114,620 | 392,989 | 292,056 | 112,486 | 404,542 | -4.69% | 1.90% | -2.86% |
| Houston Chronicle | 234,483 | 91,331 | 325,814 | 299,995 | 69,715 | 369,710 | -21.84% | 31.01% | -11.87% |
