Things looked bad enough for the Journal Gazette’s circulation numbers, which we posted earlier this week. The News Sentinel is owned by Ogden Newspapers, which also owns 75% of Fort Wayne Newspapers (FWN) jointly with the Journal Gazette. FWN sells the advertising, handles circulation, and prints both newspapers.
The News Sentinel was at one time the leading newspaper in Fort Wayne. That’s hardly the case now.
From the Audit Bureau of Circulations (3/31/04-3/31/09)
THE NEWS SENTINEL
Metro Population (Adults 18+) 305,017
NDM* Households – 130,547
NDM Circulation – 17,787 – JG has 39,328
Market Penetration – 14% – JG is 30%
The Newspaper Designated Market *(NDM) is determined by the newspaper. There are in fact 162,200 households in Allen County, which gives the News Sentinel an effective penetration of only 10.9%. The JG is at 24.2%.
In the 1980′s, the NS had circulation numbers of approximately 60,000, about 10,000 more the the JG.
Helene Foellinger must be frowning.
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Well, it is mostly a case of competition for eyeballs. TV, cable, satellite, radio, the internet and podcasts were not competition in the hay-day of newspapering. There are a thousand news channels of communications each drawing money out of the traditional newspaper’s revenue stream. Craig’s List alone takes millions of dollars away from classified pages. Consequently, the papers have less revenue to work with, cut reportorial staff and turn off readers who turn elsewhere for their news. It is a cycle that no paper has been able to withstand, even USA Today and the Wall Street Journal are cutting back. So, I buy a NS and a Journal each day. I support local reportage, I do a bit myself. I support the papers for another reason: they document better than any other source the history of our community. I recently had to research persecution of Germans here during WWI. I read every JG, News and then News and Sentinel from 1914 to 1918. It was a fascinating read, comprehensive, lively and filled with nifty pictures of the times. I worry that that source will be missing when researchers try to look back at today a hundred years in the future.
I, along with many others, would be very interested to see the true statistics for the Huntington Herald Press. Their online edition has gone to a completely paid version and their print version is an awful mess. It seems like nobody can spell or use decent grammar any longer. (I’m not saying mine is the best, but I don’t get paid for it) I get more information about our area from watching the news on tv and reading the Fort Wayne papers. They have merged with the Marion newspaper and it is a complete fiasco.
Hey All,
I’ve only lived here about five years and I am surprised by these numbers. What happened in the past to lower the circulation numbers, especially given the amount of politically conservative families that live in Allen County? I recognize this is Old Media we are talking about, but that’s a pretty substantial drop regardless of a changing technological environment. Were they once the morning paper as well, and switched to the afternoon paper?
I appreciate Mr Sack’s points about how local newspapers are an important part of chronicling our history, especially at a local level. My only thought would be that the content that so inspired and entertained and informed Mr. Sack was from a time when journalism was a genuine craft. I would be hard pressed to think today’s reporting, writing and presentation could contain the same elements of information, story-telling and readability that Mr Sack experienced during his reading of stories from the first part of last century. With an occasional exception, most local news from the papers is no more than a rewrite of a press release, or worse, a rewrite of a press release being read to a reporter over the phone by a representative of the entity issuing the press release. Mr. Sack’s point about preserving our history through the eyes and words of media is sound, I’m thinking the newspapers of today may not be that good a source….