John Ferraro’s shop at the Hartford Business Journal took a look at the Courant’s recent performance in this story that reports a weekday circulation decline of 5.4 percent, slightly larger other Connecticut papers but less than the average nationally.
I’m not sure the available evidence totally justified the headline (“Changes Fuel Courant’s Slide,”) since Sunday circulation did not fall as much and the economy has continued down the toilet in the past six months. Much of the weekday loss could be attributable to changes in reader habits and an increase in online readership. (I, for one, hardly ever read the weekday paper, since I’ve already seen its contents the day before on the website.)
I found more interesting what the story says as it applies to the current controversy over the merger with Fox 61 and the FCC cross-ownership ban. You will recall that none other than Sam Zell says the newspaper and television stations will be making news judgments independently.
Andrea Savastra, one of our buddies over there, wisely declined to comment on the integration of the two outfits, but is quoted thusly: “With the new company we’re creating, we’re making a new product we hope will appeal to a number of people.”
I didn’t hear any plurals in there, did you?
Plus there is the little issue of news writers appearing regularly on TV, and TV personalities writing columns and blogs for the website and print. Who makes the call on content then?
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I guess you can compare anything to anything. If one were to compare Courant circulation only to a few years ago then the decline is not so huge. But it was not very long ago at all that the daily was 225,000 and Sunday was well over 300,000.
There’s so little left to lose, assuming a core “nut” that will be there, that the most recent declines may seem small to some.
That represents a drop of a full third in daily circulation and well more than a quarter on Sunday. This thunderous decline has been going on for long enough to indict the local leadership for not taking it seriously enough as to develop plans and procedures to meet it.
And why I wonder would anyone waste even a second’s time on Sam Zell’s assurance to Blumenthal that there will be separate news leaderships and decisions: EVERY effort in recent times has been announced as being part of a plan to do exactly the opposite, to consolidate, to merge, to blend, to de-silo, to make platform agnostic. If that statement were made under oath Zell would be indicted for perjury. Read on this page the announcement of Levine’s appointment, of his announcement of an assignment’s czar. They brag about what the are doing and they lie through their teeth to Blumenthal, who seems to ignores the nose on his face.
PLUS, the otherwise able Ferraro’s shop also has the staff numbers flat wrong, missing entirely the truth that not only was there a cut in the workforce “last July” but another one more recently which brings the level to 133.
It is quite bland to say “In recent months, the newspaper has shed additional veteran editors and reporters, including its top two editors” as if it were just a handful.
Service quality on home delivery has a lot to do with the recent drop in weekday circulation. We are gaining New York Times customers in southeastern Connecticut because there is no Hartford Courant same-day recovery anymore for missed deliveries.
People are still leaving the weekday Courant because they don’t like the redesign. I signed up another customer for The Day today because she told me she can’t get any local news out of the Courant anymore.
A fascinating and factual insight. Thanks.