• by Erik Sass , October 28, 2014

The New York Times’ digital subscription strategy helped drive circulation growth over the last year, with total average weekday circ, including print and digital editions, jumping 12.4% from 1,897,890 in the six-month period ending September 2013 to 2,134,150 in the same period in 2014, per the Alliance for Audited Media.

Over the same period, The Wall Street Journal edged up less than 1% to 2,276,207.

But it wasn’t all good news for the Big Apple, as rival tabloids the New York Post and Daily News both saw big drops in average weekday circ. Per the AAM report, Per the AAM report, NYP’s average daily weekday circ tumbled 13.7% from 576,711 to 497,878. The Daily News slipped 8.5% from 467,110 to 427,452.

Across the nation, some big and medium-sized metro dailies and regional papers fared well in the latest AAM report, especially those pursuing digital subscription strategies that require visitors to pay for online access. But many more papers are suffering continuing declines, as mediocre online readership figures fail to offset tumbling print circ.

Among the newspapers enjoying overall circ increases, combining print and digital, are the Los Angeles Times, up 2.7% to 692,900; Long Island Newsday, up 5.2% to 460,149; The Philadelphia Inquirer, up 5.7% to 327,600; Cleveland Plain Dealer, up 20.6% to 258,351; Columbus Dispatch, up 2.7% to 134,854; and the Baton Rouge Advocate, up 16.5% to 121,165. The Chicago Tribune was basically flat at 455,125, as was The Dallas Morning News  at 413,744.

More typical, however, were the drops seen at the Denver Post, down 12.9% to 351,24; Phoenix Republic, 11.4% to 217,231; Louisville Courier-Journal, 10% to 112,465; San Jose Mercury News, 8.4% to 523,725; Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 8.2% to 183,919; Sacramento Bee, 7.4% to 176,544; Washington Post, 7% to 401,360; Omaha World-Herald, 6.9% to 116,847; Charlotte Observer, 6.6% to 119,930; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6.5% to 150,835; Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 6.4% to 181,880; Buffalo News, 6% to 134,089; Cincinnati Enquirer, 6% to 110,662; Indianapolis Star, 5% to 139,839; San Francisco Chronicle, 4.8% to 201,996; Las Vegas Review-Journal, 3.7% to 224,793; Baltimore Sun, 3.5% to 149,933; Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 2.6% to 292,538; and Houston Chronicle, 2.5% to 347,406.