News-Record.com

Much discussion on newspaper sites about the latest publishers' statements on circulation. From Editor & Publisher: "On 'Bloody Monday,' E&P calculated the circ numbers in the new Fas-Fax report and found steep percentage drops at many large papers. A few show modest gains, but in some spots it's downright ugly."

Not so ugly here. Weekday and Saturday circulation is at 95,119, an increase of 426 papers, or 0.45 percent. Sunday circulation didn't fare as well with a decrease of 1.34 percent, or 1,521 papers to 112,154.

But in our primary circulation area of the metro Greensboro area, we're in much better shape. Weekday and Saturday circulation climbed 1,089 papers to 62,105 or 1.78 percent. Sunday went up 405 papers to 71,936 or 0.57 percent.

There are a couple reasons. We have an excellent circulation sales staff and delivery force, and we put a pretty decent newspaper on the streets, if I do say so myself. We are emphasizing our core Guilford County market, and the gains reflect that. Sunday's softness concerns us, and we have a task force looking at it.

Meantime, we're continuing our efforts to improve the newspaper, ensuring that we reflect the values of the community by telling your stories, increasing our investigative reporting and writing about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Alan Mutter of Newsosaur has another take on the national scene. "The daily circulation of the nation's largest newspapers dropped an average of 3.3% in the six-month period ended March 31, as compared with the widely reported 1.9% drop for the industry over-all."

Here's the official newspaper site's article about the audit.