The Audit Bureau of Circulations has announced its latest newspaper figures and it is a good news/bad news story for the Kansas City Star.
The McClatchy-owned paper saw its Sunday circulation rise from 305,114 in March 2011 to 310,487 in March 2012. That’s a nice increase of 5,373 customers.
That’s the good news.
However, while the Star saw its Sunday circulation increase, its daily subscribers dropped from 209,259 in 2011 to 200,365 in 2012. That’s a loss of nearly 9,000 (8,894) subscribers during the audit period.
The Star remained as the nation’s 28th largest newspaper, one spot ahead of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which saw its daily circulation drop from 196,232 to 187,992, while its Sunday circulation plummeted from 360,450 to 333,529.
STAR SHOULD SURVEY CUSTOMERS
I’d be curious to know if The Star ever surveys its full-time subscribers and ex-subscribers in an attempt to ascertain, in the case of the former, what it is about the paper that leads them to want to take it, and in the case of the latter, why they quit taking it. Surely there’s some pertinent information out there to be had in shaping both future and ongoing efforts to boost the daily totals. Is it a lack of time on the part of the ex-subscriber? Do more and more people just not have the time during the week to read the paper that they used to have? The cost. That always has to be looked at.
What I’d really like to know is what is it in the paper that people are wanting to read? For example, are there really all that many people out there who truly want to read about the Chiefs or the Royals? And are there really all that many people out there who want to read FYI so they can get their Hollywood fix? In short, if you’re losing readers there has to be a reason and if there’s any way for that reason or reasons to be identified and then addressed accordingly, I would encourage the paper to do so. But at least the paper is doing better on the Sunday side, which is more than the Post-Dispatch can say.
FAR LEFT NEWSPAPER
It’s nothing more than a far left newspaper who gives free ads to the Democrats, covers up for them, does not print the news, attacks and harps on the Republicans, totally PC, need we go on?
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE…
Get to my point quick – went to an auction and found a copy of KC Star from March 1983 in a suitcase. Thumbed through it. Saw ads from Kriegel Jewelers, Natural Sleep Waterbeds, Brandsmarts, Jones Store, & Cousin’s Furniture – then I got to a Lee Judge cartoon bashing President Regan. Some things never change.