Citizens Voice Tops Times Leader In Daily Circulation

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Citizens’ Voice has jumped ahead of The Times Leader in daily circulation in Wilkes-Barre’s newspaper battle for the first time in at least 25 years, according to data compiled by the Alliance for Audited Media.

According to the latest figures released from the last six months ending Sept. 30, The Citizens’ Voice has taken the circulation lead to 24,041 copies per day, compared to 22,676 for The Times Leader, a difference of 1,365.

“The Citizens’ Voice is here to stay. We are the local newspaper,” said Joe Nealon, circulation director for The Citizens’ Voice. “Readers have been recognizing for a long time that The Citizens’ Voice is the better newspaper. More and more people are realizing that and The Times Leader is losing readers.”

Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/voice-tops-times-leader-in-daily-circulation-1.1778539

Businessman Lewis Katz Buying Philadelphia Newspapers

The Philadelphia Inquirer-Daily News Building in Philadelphia, PA. Taken from North Broad and Callowhill Streets. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Businessman Lewis Katz and philanthropist H.G. “Gerry” Lenfest will take over Philadelphia’s two largest newspapers from their partners with an $88 million auction bid.

Katz and another businessman, George Norcross, had bought The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philly.com news website for $55 million in 2012. But they began feuding and competed to take control at Tuesday’s auction.

Katz made his fortune investing in the Kinney Parking empire and the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network in New York. He supports the investigative reporting favored by current Inquirer editor Bill Marimow.

Read more: http://www.timesherald.com/business/20140527/businessman-lewis-katz-buying-philadelphia-newspapers

Pittsburgh Tribune Circulation Pulls Away From Post-Gazette’s

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Allegheny County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Tribune-Review widened its circulation edge over the Post-Gazette with gains in its printed newspapers on Sundays.

The Tribune-Review and its Trib Total Media-branded papers and electronic editions posted a Sunday circulation total of 337,484 during the six months that ended March 31, more than 45,000 ahead of the P-G, according to figures from the Alliance for Audited Media.

Average weekday and Saturday circulation over the six months at the Trib also outpaced the competition.

The Trib’s Sunday papers increased from a year ago partly because of the inclusion under alliance rules of branded community papers.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/6108284-74/trib-circulation-editions#ixzz31zPnaWhJ
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

Reading Eagle Named Top Newspaper In State For Its Size

The Reading Eagle was named the top newspaper of its size in the state, and the newsroom won 20 awards in the Pennsylvania News Media Association’s annual Keystone Press Awards for work published in 2012.

The Eagle was the sweepstakes winner in Division 2, which is for daily newspapers with circulation between 40,000 and 74,999. Each newspaper is awarded sweepstakes points based on the number of awards its staffers won in the contest.

The awards will be presented during a program May 18 in Harrisburg.

Ten of the Eagle’s awards were for first place. Winners were reporters Dave Mekeel, Jamie Klein and Bruce Posten; sportswriter Mike Drago, Assistant Photo Editor Ben Hasty; graphic designers Tad Ronnie and Craig Schaffer, Assistant Metro Editor Bill Reber and the staff of Voices, which is edited by Stacie Jones.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=463196

Journal Register Co., Parent Company Of The Mercury, Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Digital First Media, which operates MediaNews Group, Journal Register Co. and Digital First Ventures, on Wednesday announced that JRC filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and will seek to implement a prompt sale.

“We expect the auction and sale process to take about 90 days, and we are pleased to announce the company has a signed stalking horse bid for Journal Register Company from 21st CMH Acquisition Co., an affiliate of funds managed by Alden Global Capital LLC,” said John Paton, CEO of Digital First Media.

The filing enables JRC to continue normal business operations during the sale process.

Read more: http://business-news.thestreet.com/the-mercury/story/journal-register-co-parent-company-the-mercury-files-ch-11/1

Harrisburg Newspaper To Publish 3 Days A Week

Editor’s note:  According to Wikipedia, in 2011 The Patriot-News averaged over 492,000 readers per week between their print edition and Pennlive.com.  The newspaper was ranked in the top 100 in daily/Sunday circulation (United States) in 2005.

HARRISBURG, PA — The daily newspaper in Pennsylvania’s capital city is switching to a three-days-a-week publication schedule in January, in what it calls an adaptation to the changing world.

John Kirkpatrick, publisher of The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, announced the changes Tuesday in an email to friends of the newspaper.

The email didn’t say which days the paper will be published. It says the change will be accompanied by an expansion of the paper’s around-the-clock news coverage online.

“We are not making this move lightly,” said Kirkpatrick. “We understand how important the daily paper is to a large number of people in our region. However, this is a major step to make sure we are leading, not trailing, in the world of innovation and solutions.”

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-patriot-news-20120828,0,7285933.story

New Orleans Newspaper Cuts Print Edition To Three Days A Week

A true-color satellite image of New Orleans taken on NASA’s Landsat 7 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NEW ORLEANS, La.  (Reuters) – The 175-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper will reduce the number of days it publishes a print edition to three a week, making the Louisiana city the largest in the United States without a daily newspaper.

Advance Publications, which owns the Times-Picayune, said on Thursday it made the change because of the upheaval in the newspaper industry and the necessity to focus on its digital publications.

The company said three of its newspapers in Alabama – the Huntsville Times, Mobile Press-Register and Birmingham News – would also cut back their print editions to three days a week.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/sns-rt-us-media-neworleans-newspaperbre84o03e-20120524,0,1798086.story

Morning Call’s Sunday Reach Expands

Editor’s note:  Some interesting facts about print media – local and national.

Sunday circulation of The Morning Call, the Lehigh Valley‘s largest news organization, is growing.

Average Sunday circulation for the six-month period ending March 31 was 125,549, up 3 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, according to figures released Tuesday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, a media industry group. Sunday is the most important day for newspapers since it brings in the bulk of advertising revenue.

Weekday circulation was down 5 percent, to 100,196. The Morning Call attributed the decline to “the impact of the single issue price increase to $1.50” and “repositioning … to grow Sunday and other key advertising days of the week.”

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-newspaper-circulation-20120502,0,7656401.story