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27 October 2008
Chron circulation plummets; Sweeney spins himself silly
The Audit Bureau of Circulations released the latest newspaper circulation numbers today, and the results weren't pretty for the Houston Chronicle, which saw a decline of 11.66% in daily circulation. Among the 25 largest newspapers in the country, that drop was exceeded only by that of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (13.62%). The Chronicle Sunday edition did manage to click in atop the Top 25, though, with a whopping circulation decline of 15.73%!
Chron publisher and spinner Jack Sweeney said the big decline was just part of the newspaper's strategy:
Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney attributed most of the declines to strategic decisions made by the newspaper to discontinue circulation outside a 90-mile radius of downtown Houston, increase the daily newsstand price to 75 cents and eliminate advertiser-sponsored distribution. Hurricane Ike also affected circulation in coastal communities.
Matt Bramanti takes apart Sweeney's business "strategy" here.
People may not be buying the newspaper like they once did, but Chron.com is doing well, according to Sweeney:
And chron.com has seen a 20 percent jump in readers who don’t buy the Chronicle. Chron.com exceeded 90 million page views in August and spiked to 185 million in September due to Hurricane Ike coverage.
“Our journalists keep consumers of Chronicle content engaged no matter what platform they choose,” Sweeney said. “It could be our City&State section, Gloss or one of our online channels like Moms or Houston Belief.”
More likely, it would be chron.com's comic section, a popular online attraction. Or perhaps user-contributed party pics!
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, Brazosport News.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ circulation plummets; Sweeney spins himself silly"> 10/27/08 10:27 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (9)
26 October 2009
Chron circulation plummets again; BH link ban fails to arrest decline
NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION FIGURES for the six-month period that ended in September have been released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and it's more bad news for newspapers overall and the Houston Chronicle especially, which saw a daily circulation decline of 14.24% and a Sunday circulation decline of 6.30%.
As always, we look forward to Chron publisher Jack Sweeney's spin on the numbers (although we have sympathy for the poor reporter assigned to "cover" this news).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ circulation plummets again; BH link ban fails to arrest decline"> 10/26/09 12:00 PM | General | Technorati | Comments (4)
05 November 2007
E&P: Chron circulation holds fairly steady
Editor & Publisher reports on the latest circulation figures (for the past six months), released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations today, and the Chronicle fared surprisingly well compared to other large newspapers.
Total Monday-Friday circulation dropped only 0.13% for the period (from 508,091 to 507,437).
Sunday circulation increased 0.09% (from 507,437 to 508,091).
Expect a glowing, press-release story featuring Jack Sweeney from the newspaper shortly. Maybe he can also explain the most recent downsizing, which seems extreme considering the fairly steady circulation numbers this time around.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ circulation holds fairly steady"> 11/05/07 09:43 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
19 August 2005
More job cuts at the Chronicle (updated)
Matt Bramanti points out that Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney announced the paper will "pare its work force" by seven percent:
In a letter to Chronicle employees released late Thursday, Sweeney outlined the changes, which include involuntary layoffs, open positions that will not be filled, and changes in the use of contract labor and use of outside services.
The restructuring will not affect the newsroom and advertising sales staff, Sweeney wrote.
Unemployment is no fun -- I hope all those who are restructured out of their jobs find new employment as soon as possible.
RELATED: Job cuts at the Chronicle
UPDATE: Editor & Publisher reminds us of the Chron's circulation woes:
The Chronicle is Texas' biggest paper and the ninth-largest U.S. daily. In the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations FAS-FAX, the paper reported a daily circulation of 537,744 for the six months ended March 31, down 3.9% from the same period in 2004, and a Sunday circulation of 720,711, down 2.6% from last year.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/19/05 08:51 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
31 October 2006
Chron spins circulation decline
As predicted yesterday, the Chronicle's press-release-spin-posing-as-news article on the newspaper's latest big circulation decline has been posted. Here's the lede:
The Houston Chronicle is now the seventh-largest metropolitan newspaper in the nation on Sundays — up from eighth — the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported Monday, even as circulation declined.
Lemonade from lemons!
Here's publisher Jack Sweeney's spin:
The Chronicle remained the seventh-largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the nation, and home delivery circulation is up on Sundays, Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney said.
"We feel it's the start of a home delivery growth trend," Sweeney said.
"Our free, digitized information world has certainly put pressure on paid news products," Sweeney said. "But there is still plenty of demand for a compelling local newspaper."
There is. And we remain hopeful that in this woefully poor written-word town, Philip Anschutz will eventually deliver one!
BLOGVERSATION: Texas Yankee.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ circulation decline"> 10/31/06 09:02 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
30 October 2006
E&P: Chron circulation declines 3.6% over last six months
Editor & Publisher is reporting that the nation's major newspapers have seen more erosion in circulation, according to the latest data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Here is Jennifer Saba's assessment for E&P:
The Audit Bureau of Circulations FAS-FAX report for the six-month period ending September 2006 released this morning confirmed yet again that major metros are struggling to show growth. The losses are steep while the gains are meager.
This is the fourth consecutive semi-annual report to register a severe drop in daily circulation and -- perhaps more troubling to the industry -- Sunday copies. While the estimated decline 2.5% for daily circulation for all reporting papers may seem negligible, consider that in years past that decrease averaged around 1%. Sunday, considered the industry's bread-and-butter, is losing more, with a decline of 3%.
The Houston Chronicle registered a 3.6% decline in circulation over the last six months, according to E&P.
It will be entertaining to see how Chronicle publisher Jack Sweeney spins the decline in the press-release-posing-as-news article that is sure to come soon.
RELATED: Old media evolves slowly.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ circulation declines 3.6% over last six months"> 10/30/06 08:11 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (11)
09 May 2006
Chron press release poses as news story on circulation
Yesterday, we posted that newspaper circulation figures had been released, and noted that we were looking forward to the spin that Chronicle publisher Jack Sweeney would put on the news.
We didn't have to wait long for the Chronicle's press release coverage of itself. And there's some pretty good spin:
The Houston Chronicle's daily and Sunday circulation declined in the six-month period that ended March 30, the Audit Bureau of Circulations has reported.
Daily circulation decreased by 3.6 percent to 513,387, compared with the prior year, and the Sunday figure declined 3.9 percent to 692,557.
On average, the top 25 daily newspapers in the United States saw circulation decline by 3.5 percent.
The bolded part is clever! The Associated Press story actually reported that overall newspaper circulation declined by 2.5%. The Chronicle PR staff did some good work in massaging the numbers so that the Chronicle's decline doesn't look quite so bad, compared to other large newspapers. Lemonade from lemons!
Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney attributed the newspaper's declines to reductions in distribution to parts of Texas and Louisiana because of high fuel costs, as well as tighter audit bureau rules related to delinquent accounts.
Under new audit bureau rules, "computer systems must be programmed to eliminate the subscriber address from paid circulation averages automatically on day 91," Sweeney said. "It took our market a while to adjust to the change."
Sweeney has been trotting out those explanations for a while now. Here's Sweeney in November 2005:
The Chronicle's decline was primarily due to a more conservative auditing posture by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, said Jack Sweeney, president and publisher of the Chronicle.
"We used to be able to collect and show proof of payment to ABC on overdue accounts," Sweeney said. "Now if a subscriber is one day late with a payment over 90 days, the computer system automatically eliminates the address from the paid circulation averages."
Soaring fuel costs have also altered circulation strategies, Sweeney said. "We've pulled our distribution in closer to our core market by eliminating San Antonio, Dallas, far South Texas and parts of Louisiana," Sweeney said.
And here's Sweeney in May 2005:
The decline was primarily due to changes in accounting rules mandated by the audit bureau, as well as the Chronicle's business decision to reduce distribution in Dallas, far South Texas and parts of Louisiana.
"We anticipated some decline of home-based subscriptions because of overdue accounts," said Jack Sweeney, president and publisher of the Chronicle.
"If a subscriber is one day late with a payment over 90 days, they're eliminated from the paid circulation averages. We were hit harder than usual by late payments this last six-month reporting period, so we'll be working on improving our collection procedures."
The tighter ABC rules were established some time ago, as the previous stories illustrate. They really aren't so relevant to this cycle. And in a reasonable world, people who haven't paid in over 90 days shouldn't count as subscribers anyway! Maybe the Chron PR people can come up with something more original for the November 2006 press release (er, sorry, news coverage of the newspaper's circulation).
As expected, Sweeney downplayed the circulation decline by arguing that the Chronicle's "overall reach" (including Chron.com, direct mail, and free products) continues to rise.
BLOGVERSATION: Slampo's Place, Brazosport News.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ circulation"> 05/09/06 09:10 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
08 May 2006
Black Monday for Hearst dailies?
The Newspaper Association of America has analyzed the latest newspaper circulation figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, and the results are not good for the industry overall or for the local Hearst daily:
Newspaper circulation fell 2.5 percent in the six-month period ending in March, according to data released Monday, as the industry continued to struggle with competition from other media outlets and the Internet.
The decline in average paid weekday circulation was about the same as the previous time newspapers reported six-month circulation figures for the period ending last September, according to the Newspaper Association of America, a trade group.
The Houston Chronicle's circulation declined by 3.6%, according to the AP. HPD estimates that Houston's population has grown by 138,000 since 2005, but perhaps not many new Houstonians are big newspaper readers.
The news could be much worse. The Hearst daily in San Francisco suffered a circulation decline of 15.6%.
It will be interesting to see how publisher Jack Sweeney spins the latest numbers when the Chronicle posts a local story later.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/08/06 09:38 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
02 November 2004
Dumbing down the Chronicle = bigger circulation?
The Chronicle gave itself a pat on the back this morning:
The Houston Chronicle's daily circulation grew in the last six months, while Sunday circulation declined, the Audit Bureau of Circulations has reported.
And the Chronicle has moved up in the ranking of the country's biggest newspapers.
"We're now the nation's seventh-largest daily metropolitan newspaper and the eighth-largest on Sunday," said Chronicle President and Publisher Jack Sweeney. "Given the economic challenges we've faced this year, we're not all that unhappy with the numbers."
Sweeney cited recent improvements in the Chronicle as reasons for optimism. "It's our commitment to strong news coverage, our easy-to-read format and our first redesign in more than 20 years that will attract younger readers going forward," Sweeney said.
According to the ABC report, the Chronicle's daily circulation increased an average of 1,767 copies — to 554,783. Sunday circulation declined by 9,822 — to 737,580.
[snip]
John Sturm, president of the newspaper association, said of the figures, "We're not wild about it because it shows a bit of a decrease again," but he added that the declines were in line with recent trends. He also said publishers were finding ways to attract new readers despite new rules governing telemarketing such as the do-not-call lists.
Sweeney agreed. "The ways newspapers used to build home delivery have changed," he said. "We have to come up with entirely new approaches to sell the newspaper."
Yes, well, those new approaches didn't actually include improving content or editorial decision-making. Nonetheless, Sweeney is putting the best possible spin on this, in light of the Chronicle's recent downsizing. And he's careful to say the Chronicle is seventh-largest, among metropolitan papers. When the nation's two biggest papers, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, are added in, then the Chronicle is number nine. And that's for weekday readership. Sunday's numbers declined.
This whole circulation number thing is iffy, as the recent Enron-like scandal within the newspaper industry shows (and which the Chronicle has carefully avoided reporting on). The Audit Bureau of Circulations, the supposed watchdog of the industry, has come under fire itself for its, uh, oversight. Indeed a fast look at the guidelines for counting newspaper circulation shows many loopholes.
As long as a newspaper charges 25% of its basic price for a newspaper, that paper can be counted as circulation. Newspapers used in schools, generally paid for by sponsors, are counted as circulation. Newspapers at hotels, as long as some rules are followed, are counted as circulation. Newspapers "sold" at events, again following some guidelines, are counted as circulation. And, if a newspaper sells its product electronically, there are even guidelines for counting that! I don't think the Chronicle is selling electronic subscriptions yet, but since I am a paying subscriber, I don't know for sure. (Someone at blogHOUSTON has to make the supreme sacrifice and take the dead tree version so we don't miss fabulous stuff like this.)
What is kind of interesting, and perhaps is a better indicator of where things really stand at the Chronicle, is the Sunday numbers decline. I don't know about you, but for years the Sunday paper was what I looked forward to the most. All those ads and extras. In my mind, the Sunday paper is truly a subscriber paper, as opposed to the weekday paper which can be pawned off on schools, hotels, and businesses. Wonder what has changed?
Mr. Sweeney can happily tout his circulation standing, but trust me, he knows, just like many of us know, that newspapers are old media, that newspaper content is often suspect, and that newspaper circulation numbers are to be taken with a grain of salt. And no amount of spinning (or "easy-to-read" formatting) will change those perceptions.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ circulation?"> 11/02/04 09:58 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
30 April 2007
ABC: Chron circulation down again
The Audit Bureau of Circulations has released its latest figures, and once again the news is not very good for the local Hearst daily (or very many other newspapers):
Average paid weekday circulation of the nation's 20 largest newspapers for the six-month period ending in March, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.
1. USA Today, 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent
2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent
3. The New York Times, 1,120,420, down 1.9 percent
4. Los Angeles Times, 815,723, down 4.2 percent
5. New York Post, 724,748, up 7.6 percent
6. New York Daily News, 718,174, up 1.4 percent
7. The Washington Post, 699,130, down 3.5 percent
8. Chicago Tribune, 566,827, down 2.1 percent
9. Houston Chronicle, 503,114, down 2 percent
As always, we'll be looking forward to seeing Chronicle publisher Jack Sweeney's spin in the Chron press-release-posing-as-news article that should follow shortly.
UPDATE (05-02-2007): And here's Sweeney's spin:
The Houston Chronicle's daily circulation dipped 2 percent and Sunday circulation declined 2.2 percent, but the Chronicle remained the seventh-largest daily metropolitan newspaper and is eighth-largest on Sunday, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported.
The Chronicle's daily circulation is 503,114, and Sunday circulation is 677,425.
Nationally, weekday circulation at U.S. daily newspapers fell 2.1 percent in the latest six-month reporting period. Comparable figures for Sunday newspapers fell 3.1 percent, according to the Newspaper Association of America, an industry group.
Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney said most of the decline in Houston was in "other paid circulation," which includes third-party sales sponsored by advertisers, hotels and educational programs.
"We needed to shift the bulk of our resources to the all-important home-delivery area, and we had our second straight gain on Sunday," Sweeney said. "There's still plenty of demand for a compelling local newspaper delivered to your door every day."
No author is listed on the reporting. Presumably, no decent reporter wanted to be associated with what amounts to a press release posing as news.
BLOGVERSATION: Slampo's Place.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ circulation down again"> 04/30/07 10:51 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (12)
03 May 2005
Chronicle publisher spins circulation decline
Yesterday, the latest newspaper circulation figures were released. The Chronicle suffered a 3.9% decline in daily readership.
Today, the Chronicle put its spin on the decline, in a story in the business section:
"We anticipated some decline of home-based subscriptions because of overdue accounts," said Jack Sweeney, president and publisher of the Chronicle.
"If a subscriber is one day late with a payment over 90 days, they're eliminated from the paid circulation averages. We were hit harder than usual by late payments this last six-month reporting period, so we'll be working on improving our collection procedures."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ circulation decline"> 05/03/05 10:41 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
07 November 2005
Chronicle sees steep 6% drop in circulation (updated!)
The latest newspaper circulation numbers have been reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and the Chronicle has suffered another decline in readership:
Average weekday circulation of America's 20 biggest newspapers for the six-month period ended Sept. 30, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. [The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.]
1. USA Today, 2,296,335, down 0.59 percent
2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,083,660, down 1.10 percent
3. The New York Times, 1,126,190, up 0.46 percent
4. Los Angeles Times, 843,432, down 3.79 percent
5. New York Daily News, 688,584, down 3.70 percent
6. The Washington Post, 678,779, down 4.09 percent
7. New York Post, 662,681, down 1.74 percent
8. Chicago Tribune, 586,122, down 2.47 percent
9. Houston Chronicle, 521,419, down 6.01 percent
10. The Boston Globe, 414,225, down 8.25 percent
May's circulation numbers had the Chronicle's decline at 3.9 percent. Clearly, the current business model isn't working at 801 Texas Ave.
RELATED: Laurence Simon and Lone Star Times
UPDATE: The Chron is running an AP story about the nationwide circulation woes. Most head-scratching paragraph:
Four newspapers whose circulation was affected by Hurricane Katrina did not file statements with the Audit Bureau: The Times-Picayune of New Orleans; the American Press in Lake Charles, La.; The Beaumont Enterprise in Texas; and The Daily Leader in Brookhaven, Miss.
Since I don't recall Katrina impacting Beaumont, TX, I am assuming the story meant Hurricane Rita, in the case of the Beaumont Enterprise.
UPDATE AGAIN: The Chronicle did that poof-thing again. The link in the above update now goes to an entirely different Chronicle-credited story/apologia:
The Chronicle's decline was primarily due to a more conservative auditing posture by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, said Jack Sweeney, president and publisher of the Chronicle.
"We used to be able to collect and show proof of payment to ABC on overdue accounts" said Sweeney. "Now if a subscriber is one day late with a payment over 90 days, the computer system automatically eliminates the address from the paid circulation averages."
Soaring fuel costs have also altered circulation strategies, said Sweeney. "We've pulled our distribution in closer to our core market by eliminating San Antonio, Dallas, far South Texas and parts of Louisiana."
The Chronicle's 2005 circulation averages also suffered the effects of Hurricane Rita with evacuations and gas shortages curtailing rack and store sales over several days in parts of East Texas.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: That bolded paragraph is some kind of spinning by Sweeney! One former distributor tells me there was always pressure from the Chronicle brass to throw newspapers even when a subscriber stopped paying. Now we know why -- they hoped to count those "subscribers" as paid circulation if they could ever entice them into coming back. The current practice is more honest.
That business about pulling circulation from Dallas because of fuel costs is funny. Dallas has a real newspaper, not to mention the Star-Telegram. Why in the world would anybody in that metro area read the Chronicle?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ circulation (updated!)"> 11/07/05 12:03 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (19)
27 April 2009
Not good news if you work at the Chronicle
It shouldn't come as any surprise that newspapers keep going down that spiral. Following a link from Drudge Report you find this story about the top 25 newspaper circulation numbers.
The Houston Chronicle was down almost 14% of daily circulation to 425,138. Sunday fell 7.8% to 583,364 copies.
This number reflects circulation numbers during a six-month period ending March 31, 2009.
Ouch! For the top 25 list go here.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: And yet, some member of Chron management decided that a laughable exorcism of blogHOUSTON from all Chron.com blogrolls should be a priority for the newspaper (and not, say, the precipitous decline in customers).
I feel bad for the poor Chron journalist who has the duty of getting Jack Sweeney's spin on this latest decline. Maybe they will just label it as "Houston Chronicle News Services." Or more honestly, just run a straight press release.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Jason @ 04/27/09 11:13 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
28 April 2009
Chron publisher spins (and spins and spins) latest circulation decline
As anticipated in the addendum to yesterday's post on the Chronicle's sagging circulation numbers, the newspaper featured publisher Jack Sweeney's spin on the severe decline today:
“We’re concentrating our sales and marketing efforts on our core market, the ZIP codes where our advertisers need it,” he said.
Sweeney said home delivery accounts are up nearly 5 percent Sunday and more than 21 percent on key weekdays in those 75 ZIP codes.
While the Chronicle has fewer seven-day customers, “five-day, three-day and Sunday-only delivery programs have helped fuel that growth,” Sweeney said.
In the core Houston market, Sunday home delivery has continued to grow — a more than 1,000-paper gain in this reporting period. In the core market, daily readership is up 3 percent, Sunday is up 9 percent and seven-day readership is up 4 percent, Sweeney said.
“And when you add chron.com, our reach is nearly 2.4 million adults each week, or 55 percent of the market,” he said.
Combined print and online audience is up 5 percent over the last year, based on data from the Scarborough Audience Ratings Report. Chron.com exceeded 91 million page views in March, up 14 percent over last year.
“Strong journalism keeps consumers of Chronicle content engaged on multiple platforms: print, online, mobile or all three,” Sweeney said. “That’s the way information is consumed these days, and our metrics are large and growing in all modern measurement areas.”
At times like this, saying less is probably better. But the Chron's senior management seems to be in denial. Who knows, maybe the numbers will pick up next time, now that the big blogHOUSTON blogroll exorcism is complete! At least they didn't put a reporter's name on that "story."
The newspaper's so-called reader representative posted this earlier:
The Houston Chronicle's circulation declined 13.2 percent daily and 7.8 percent on Sundays, according to the latest circulation figures. Here's the story.
Also, here are the top 25 newspapers by daily circulation. The Chronicle remained the seventh-largest metropolitan newspaper in the country. Check it out.
He links to the Chron PR release posing as a news story for the 13.2 percent number. Then he links to the Editor & Publisher story, which actually cites a decline of 13.96%.
Isn't that just par for the course?
UPDATE (04-29-09): In a rare update to the About:Chron blog, Jim Newkirk explains the discrepancy:
Update: Several readers pointed out by e-mail a discrepancy between the Chronicle daily circulation figures reported in the Chronicle and the figures reported in the Editor & Publisher online story. The Chronicle story reflects a Monday through Saturday average for daily circulation and our story should have made that clear. The story by E&P reported a Monday through Friday daily average for the Chronicle. Gene Haddock, Chronicle vice president for circulation, told me the Audit Bureau of Circulations considers Monday through Friday as well as Monday through Saturday valid reporting metrics for daily circulation figures.
Story? Just call it a press release.
BLGOVERSATION: Unca Darrell.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ circulation decline"> 04/28/09 11:09 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
27 October 2004
Job cuts at the Chronicle
We noted a few weeks ago that the Chronicle buried some rather ominous news about "restructuring" at the newspaper in the business section.
We speculated at the time that layoffs were coming. Now, the shoe has dropped:
The Houston Chronicle has cut nearly 10 percent of its work force, or 243 positions, as part of a previously announced program to reduce operating expenses, the company said today.
More than 64 percent of the reduction was in contract labor and outside work force positions, 28 percent through voluntary buyouts and elimination of open positions, and 8 percent through layoffs. The Chronicle provided severance packages and job placement services to employees who left.
Virtually all of the positions in the news and advertising divisions remain intact.
In a letter to employees, Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney said it was important to cut costs to pay for initiatives that will add circulation, readership and advertising revenue.
Sweeney is not very convincing. A 10% workforce reduction is MASSIVE, no matter how he tries to spin it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/27/04 04:59 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
03 December 2004
If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em
The Houston Chronicle attempted to whitewash its massive layoffs and cost reductions (coming about, no doubt, because of a decreasing revenue) back in October by promising exciting new products.
It doesn't appear that the newspaper will be developing any new products or improving the current declining product.
Rather, the Chron plans on busting into the Spanish-language market via the acquisition route:
The Houston Chronicle has acquired the weekly Spanish-language paper La Voz.
Jack Sweeney, the Chronicle's publisher and president, and Olga Ordóñez, publisher of La Voz de Houston, announced the sale to their staffs Thursday.
Ordóñez and her 13-member staff will remain at the paper, which she and her husband, Armando, began in 1979. Ordóñez will continue in her role as publisher and will report to Sweeney.
"We're delighted that Olga has agreed to sell the paper to the Houston Chronicle and will be staying on to teach us even more about providing news and information to the Spanish-speaking community," Sweeney said in a statement.
La Voz and the Houston Chronicle have worked together for 13 years, with the Chronicle printing and distributing La Voz, sharing some stories, and selling ads into the weekly. With the new arrangement, La Voz will gain editorial and advertising sales support from the Chronicle.
La Voz has a circulation of 100,000 and covers news, sports, food, and entertainment. It will join La Vibra, a weekly entertainment tabloid, as one of the Chronicle's Spanish-language products.
We rather doubt Ordóñez will be remaining with her old newspaper for long. Newspapers don't have co-publishers. Sweeney is the publisher now, and no doubt is planning changes. Indeed, one rather expects that MeMo has already unveiled plans to replace the name of the Entertainment section with a great big jalapeno!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/03/04 05:53 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
09 November 2005
Thinking about Sweeney's circulation spin
The Chronicle's self-serving story explaining away its decline in circulation did not escape the keen eye of Slampo, who does quite a thorough Fisking of the entire piece on his blog. Here's an excerpt:
The Houston Chronicle headline writers, no doubt aware of the rising reader clamor for more “happy news,” did indeed dig down to locate the nearly obscured silver lining with the factually sound subject-verb-direct object combination “Chronicle retains ranking.” If the paper had not retained its ranking … well, that would have almost risen to the level of real news, since by our ’rithmetic it would have required a gain of about 22,000 daily papers over the previous year to surpass the sixth-ranked Chicago Tribune---that’s a larger numbers gain than reported by the NYT---or a loss of 140,000 or so to drop beneath the eighth place Boston Globe. (It’s all about the art of the possible, we guess.)
We’re not here this evening to offer our complex and turgid explanations for the continuing fall in newspaper circulation and/or readership---we’re available to do that in private, for $250 an hour, with shower and hot towels available---but we can’t let Mr. Sweeney’s sundry rationalizations of the numbers pass without comment.
The entire post is here.
Incidentally, that Chronicle story ran the following numbers related to Chron.com:
The Chronicle also reaches many more readers online, with chron.com averaging 60 million page views and 5.3 million unique visitors each month.
A story that ran in the Houston Business Journal on Monday, however, cited different (lower) numbers for Chron.com:
Chron.com, the newspaper's Web site, averages 50 million page views and 3.8 million unique visitors per month.
The Houston Business Journal appeared to take key information from this press release from Feedburner, also dated Monday (November 7).
So, which numbers are accurate, and why the discrepancy?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Sweeney's circulation spin"> 11/09/05 09:02 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Apparently, 70%+ are bigoted potential KKK members
Yesterday, Texas voters overwhelmingly (76.2%) approved Proposition 2, which affords constitution status to the traditional definition of marriage.
Here in Harris County, 72.5% of voters approved Proposition 2.
It is worth noting that a Houston Chronicle staff editorial effectively called supporters of the measure bigots.
It is further worth noting that the Chronicle's Sunday editorialist and weekday Austin bureau chief effectively compared supporters of Proposition 2 to the KKK, and called Proposition 2 "prejudicial" and "hate-provoking."
Whatever one's thoughts on Proposition 2, it really cannot be disputed that it's a pretty stupid business model to engage in such nasty name-calling with such a large segment of your potential customer base.
And however dizzily euphoric publisher Jack Sweeney made himself after spinning so effusively about the Chron's declining circulation, he might want to consider that part of the decline just might be explained by those people who eventually are offended when the newspaper's juvenile editorialists seem to go out of their way to call so many potential customers names, and to attack their values. It should come as no surprise that some of those people may not want to pay for that privilege.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/09/05 09:42 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (64)
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