When the Audit Bureau of Circulations releases the latest numbers on Oct. 26, it will show that USA Today's circulation fell 17% to 1.88 million for the six months ending September 2009, a drop of about 390,000 copies, Editor & Publisher reported Friday.

After USA Today's announcement, Dow Jones, the Journal's parent company, declined to declare its own circulation figures for the period, but spokesman Robert Christie said, "The Journal is now the largest newspaper by circulation," The Associated Press reported Saturday.

The Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corp., had until recently been the nation's second-largest newspaper by circulation, the Journal said Saturday.

Last year the Journal boasted circulation of just over two million weekday copies, based on the average for the six-month period ending September 2008. Meanwhile, USA Today, founded in 1982 and today owned by Gannett, is being hurt by a drop in traffic at airports and hotels, the newspaper's mainstay, according to CBS News.

USA Today also increased the price of single copies to $1 from 75 cents last December. Despite the sharp drop, USA Today will remain number one in terms of total print circulation because the Journal's total circulation includes nearly 356,000 subscribers to its website, Agence France-Presse reported Sunday.

The Wall Street Journal is currently the only major U.S. daily to make readers pay for access to all of its content online.