Big circ gains for NY Times and USA Today

Newspaper circulation isn’t what it used to be. And neither are the tools used to measure it.

The latest batch of circulation numbers from the Alliance for Audited Media came out, and it’s difficult to cull any significant meaning from them because of all the changes that have been made to the means by which circulation is measured.

Many of the changes reflect the new way people read papers, both in print and digitally. But they also provide some loopholes that help certain papers claim big circulation gains that, when you look more closely at them, don’t always hold up.

The most significant example during the six months ended March 31, the data comes from USA Today. The paper saw an incredible 94 percent gain in Monday through Friday circulation, to 3,255,157. But that surge includes 668,054 branded editions, which AAM defines as a publication that publishes at least weekly, publishes on the same paper stock as the newspaper, contains editorial content and represents itself as a newspaper. Branded editions might include a weekly Spanish-language edition or a coupon supplement.

In USA Today’s case, it’s a condensed edition of the paper, dubbed a butterfly edition, that’s distributed in dozens of Gannett publications across the country each day. USA Today’s gains also include more digital non-replica editions, or users of the paper’s apps.

The New York Times saw big gains during the March 31 reporting period as well, also thanks to branded editions. Its Monday through Friday circulation jumped 15 percent, but again, it included 126,162 branded editions for the first time. The Times counted the international edition of the paper as a branded edition in its figures. Still, even without the branded editions, circulation would be up 8 percent, with digital accounting for the bulk of those gains.

Indeed, nearly every paper that reported improvements during the reporting period got them from a bump in branded editions.