• Advertising Age, Monday, November 10, 2008 9:30 AM

Barack Obama's successful run for the presidency was not enough to boost newspaper sales in his hometown of Chicago, even though giddy readers scrambled to grab keepsake copies of the Nov. 5 issues.

From April to September this year, the Tribune's weekday circulation dropped nearly 8% and the Sun-Times fell by nearly 4%. (Web traffic, however, was robust.) The circ declined despite high drama. The period included the final months of Obama's face-off with Hillary Clinton, his clinching of the nomination and controversial developments around Chicago-based figures.

"It doesn't bode well for newspapers if people are buying them for their scrapbooks rather than for their analysis," says media buyer Paula Hambrick.

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