• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, May 19, 2003

Eight in 10 Choose Newspapers Every Week

The Spring 2003 Competitive Media Index from the Newspaper Association of America shows newspapers in the top 50 markets continue to reach nearly eight out of 10 adults over the course of a week. "Nearly 80 percent of adults are making a conscious decision each week to pick up a newspaper - that kind of reach is hard to beat," said NAA President and CEO John Sturm. "Newspapers don't happen to be 'on' when you're in the room. If you're reading a newspaper, you're engaged in it - and eight in 10 people choose to be engaged each week." In addition, CMI reports that more than half of all adults in the top 50 markets are reading a newspaper every weekday; 55.1 percent reported by the Spring 2003 CMI, compared to 55.4 percent in the fall 2002. Each Sunday, 63.1 percent of adults in those markets read a newspaper, down slightly from 63.6 percent reported in the Fall 2002 CMI. "This daily appetite for newspapers tells advertisers that newspapers are delivering the reader base that advertisers value, particularly in a difficult economic climate," Sturm noted

An NAA analysis of data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the six-month period ending March 31, 2003, shows that roughly half the daily newspapers gained circulation. The average daily circulation for the 814 newspapers reporting for comparable periods was 49,966,190, a slight drop of 0.1 percent over the same period a year ago. On Sunday, the trend for the 640 newspapers reporting for comparable periods was the same, falling 0.1 percent to 54,318,384 from 54,393,420. The following are NAA's Spring 2003 CMI top 10 newspaper markets for adult readership with:

% Reading Daily
1. Providence, R.I. - New Bedford, Mass.	67.1 %
2. Hartford - New Haven, Conn.	66.3
3. West Palm Beach, Fla.	65.7
4. Boston	65.6
5. Buffalo	65.5
6. Cleveland	64.8
7. Pittsburgh	63.0
8. Harrisburg - Lancaster - Lebanon - York, Pa.	62.5
9. New York	62.4
10. Philadelphia	61.4
% Reading Sunday
1. Providence, R.I. - New Bedford, Mass.	76.4 %
2. West Palm Beach, Fla.	76.1
3. Cleveland	75.6
4. Hartford-New Haven, Conn.	73.5
5. Buffalo	73.5
6. Tampa - St. Petersburg - Sarasota, Fla.	73.1
7. Pittsburgh	70.7
8. New Orleans	69.7
9. Philadelphia	69.4
10. Harrisburg - Lancaster - Lebanon - York, Pa.	69.2

The CMI is based on audience research data collected by Scarborough Research, New York City

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