The top 3, er, 2 …
There was a certain predictability to the winners of the Arizona Newspaper Association’s top circulation category back on Oct. 10. That category is for daily newspapers with a circulation of more than 25,000. No comments yet. You can be the first!
Three newspapers — The Arizona Republic, The Arizona Daily Star and The East Valley Tribune — took the lion’s share of first, second and third-place awards, just jockeying for the gold, silver or bronze, so to speak. That’s because they were the ONLY daily newspapers in the state that topped the 25,000 mark.
For the six months ended Sept. 30, the Republic had an average Monday-Friday circulation of 316,874, an average Saturday circulation of 347,195 and a Sunday circulation of 458,992. The Tucson-based Star had 93,770, 102,045 and 135,432 respectively in preliminary figures filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which as its name implies, audits circulation figures. The East Valley Tribune circulation figures weren’t listed on the ABC’s site.
The next largest daily was the Daily Courier in Prescott, which averaged 15,518 Monday-Saturday, and 16,722 on Sunday, according to the ABC.
Now, the Tribune — a paper that has been published in Mesa in one form or another since 1891 and the ANA’s 2009 Daily Newspaper of the Year — won’t be around to compete in next year’s contest.
The parent company, Freedom Communications, which filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 in September, announced Nov. 2 that it was closing the newspaper effective Dec. 31. The owner was unable to find a buyer for the property.
Ironically, by the night of the awards presentation, the Tribune was no longer a daily newspaper. However, the Tribune had been a daily for most of the contest period that ran from May 1, 2008, through April 30, 2009.
The Tribune scaled back in January, laying off 142 employees as it shifted from a daily, subscription operation to a four-day-a-week, free-distribution model, supplemented by daily online updates. Four months later, it went to three days a week in print.
When Chris Coppola, the Tribune editor, approached the podium to accept the award for the paper, Paula Casey, the ANA’s executive director, remarked that it was the ninth Newspaper of the Year award that ANA had awarded the Trib.
Then, she acknowledged the reality that the Trib was no longer a daily: “I spoke with Julie (Moreno, the Trib’s publisher,) a few days ago and Julie told me that she would like to continue competing in the daily category, we would allow that and welcome it."
That’s not going to happen now, and ANA’s contest committee will be looking at a change of rules for next year’s competition.
It was a sobering night to be in the relatively shiny new facilities of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (at Arizona State University's downtown Phoenix campus) and celebrating the accomplishments of the state’s newspapers, while realizing just how fast they’re going away.
04 Nov, 2009 >