Sunday is not a day of rest when it comes to newspaper sales in the US. The newly published annual Pew report on the state of the American media has highlighted that despite the problems that print newspapers are facing in the US, Sunday print editions are continuing to do relatively well. Sunday circulation has stabilised and has even gone up at some papers. What’s more, Pew writes that as print ad revenues plummet, Sunday preprint insert advertising has proved comparatively resilient.

Presumably to capitalise on this trend, the Wall Street Journal has established a partnership with 62 local papers, which each weekend publish between two and four pages of content about business and personal finance produced by WSJ writers. Jeff Roberts writes for paidContent that the articles are not reproduced from the Journal, but written specifically to target a wider, lower-earning audience.

by Roy Greenslade

Is there still space on a Sunday for a News of the World replacement? There appears to be a widespread belief that there is a lot of room because 700,000 buyers went AWOL following the paper's closure in early July while the bulk reluctantly migrated to rival titles.

I'll come to what they are offering readers in a moment. Meanwhile, let's consider whether that space genuinely exists.

Continue reading on Greenslade Blog

Newspapers everywhere are taking a good hard look at paid content, and how, or whether, paywalls can benefit them. Rupert Murdoch's The Times and Sunday Times are being watched today, as they begin charging for online content - the first non-specialist newspapers in Britain to do so.

As online ad prices and paid circulation go down, all while online readership soars, experts predict many newspapers will continue trying out different types of online paid content models. Other newspapers will certainly look to thetimes.co.uk and sundaytimes.co.uk for lessons. Both sites will charge £1 for a daily subscription, or £2 for a weekly subscription.

"We believe the new sites offer real value and we look forward to continuing to invest and innovate for readers," said Rebekah Brooks, CEO of News International, News Corp's British subsidiary, Agence France-Presse reported today.

The basics of an online paid content business model are based on both attracting enough paying customers and serving high-yielding advertisements to that very dedicated audience.

All UK Sunday quality papers saw circulation go down in December 2009, due to bulk distribution issues, MediaGuardian reported.

The Sunday Telegraph's December circulation slid by about 26,000 to 525,088, as it stopped selling bulk copies to airports and gyms for a nominal fee that they then give away for free. The paper's bulk copies total about 77,000 fewer than the previous year, which made circulation go down 8.72 percent year on year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Worst hit was The Observer, with sales declining 16.49 percent year-on-year to 351,019, partly because it stopped distributing bulk copies since mid-2009. Sales of the Sunday paper in December dropped 5.81 percent month-on-month.

Unlike most of its competitors, the Independent on Sunday distributed 8,580 more bulk copies in December than in the previous year. Sales totalled 155,460 in December, down 4.94 percent year-on-year and 0.68 percent month-on-month.

The Sunday Times, which had circulation of 80,000 more than its rivals combined, declined 3.76 percent year-on-year, or dropped 4.97 percent month-on-month, to 1,113,195 copies in December. It distributed more than 3,300 fewer bulk copies than one year ago, MediaGuardian reported.

In general, the total average net circulation of UK's Sunday quality market was 2,240,330, which is down 7.24 percent compared to one year ago.