• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, April 26, 2010

The average weekday circulation of 604 American newspapers declined yet again over the last year, dropping 8.7% from March 2009-March 2010, according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Meanwhile, Sunday circulations for 548 newspapers with Sunday editions declined 6.5%.

Newspapers that took the biggest hits in weekday circulation included The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, down 25% to 196,200; The Boston Globe, down 23.2% to 232,432; The San Francisco Chronicle, down 23% to 241,330; Newark, NJ's Star-Ledger, down 17.8% to 236,017; The Miami Herald, down 15.5% to 170,769; the Los Angeles Times, down 15% to 616,606; The Washington Post, down 13.1% to 578,482; and USA Today, down 13.6% to 1,826,622.

Somewhat more modest decreases were seen at the Boston Herald, down 12% to 132,551; the Chicago Tribune, down 10% to 452,145; the Phoenix Republic, down 10% to 351,207; Long Island's Newsday, down 9.3% to 334,809; and The New York Times, down 8.5% to 951,063.

In the perennial battle between New York City's tabloids, the New York Daily News took an 11.3% hit, sinking to 535,059, while the New York Post sank a mere 6% to 525,004.

While this gives bragging rights to the Daily News as the larger daily tabloid, the truth is that both newspapers have been passing each other on the downslope for years, at least as far as weekday circulation is concerned.