The Boston Globe has the figures I was missing. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the Boston Herald’s weekday circulation is down 17.4 percent, to 150,688, and its Sunday readership has dropped 9.6 percent, to 95,392.
The Patriot Ledger of Quincy and the Enterprise of Brockton, both GateHouse papers, lost readers as well, but not by as great a percentage.
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Is the Globe being singled out as the poster child of a struggling newspaper, or is it in the mainstream of major papers that are struggling with the terrible economy plus the changing dynamic of the newspaper business? I’m getting a sense that their problems are in the middle of the papers with losses, but their misfortune is to be owned by the New York Times, with all the focus and attention that brings.
I am one of those people who is willing to read the Globe for free on-line to get regional news (and overlook what I find irritating (apparent lack of awareness of when it is voicing opinion as fact), wrong (when it makes factual errors), or inadequate (when its thinking and analysis lacks rigor or contains mistakes); — and yes, I am aware that my filter is not necessarily shared by others and is flawed and limited/ing in its own way). If I had to pay for the Globe on-line, I wouldn’t, and instead I would rely more on the websites of local TV and radio for regional news and information. I offer this more as a data-point than as a critique or persuasive position.
Maybe I should have added, as context, to what I said above, that I pay for a subscription to the print NY Times, and would only pay for one on-line if the print edition became unavailable. I would love to read the Wall Street Journal but can’t afford it. I also pay for a subscription to my weekly local paper (especially to find out stuff relevant to having a kid in the school system).