by Tatiana Repkova

Weekday circulation at U.S. daily newspapers fell 2.1 percent in the latest six-month reporting period, according to figures released April 30, in the latest sign that people are turning to the Internet and other media for news. Comparable figures for Sunday newspapers fell 3.1 percent for the six months ending in March, according to the Newspaper Association of America, an industry group. The calculations are based on reports that newspapers deliver to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Performance was mixed among the 10 largest newspapers, with several showing declines of 2 percent to 4 percent and a few showing gains, most notably The New York Post, which is locked in a fierce competition with the New York Daily News. Those two papers had the largest gains among the major dailies, with the Post’s average weekday circulation rising 7.6 percent over the same period a year earlier, while the Daily News rose 1.4 percent. The New York Post, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate News Corp., recently announced that it would double its weekday price as of Monday to 50 cents from 25 cents. The Daily News, owned by the real estate developer Mortimer Zuckerman, charges 50 cents on weekdays. Gannett Co.’s USA Today remained the largest daily in the country, with circulation of 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent from the same period a year earlier, ahead of The Wall Street Journal at 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent. Online readership of newspaper sites continues to grow. The NAA pointed to recently released data from Nielsen/NetRatings showing a 5.3 percent increase in the number of people who visited newspaper Web sites in the first quarter of 2007. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18401504/; April 30, 2007