The country’s 80 largest news papers saw their average circulation drop by 2.6 percent in the six months ended March 31, according to statistics released yesterday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The decline marks a slowdown in the general downward trend.
There are some papers that bucked the downdraft.
The Wall Street Journal saw circulation rise 1.2 percent from the previous six-month period — allowing it to retain its title as the No. 1 daily newspaper. USA Today, No. 2 on the list, saw its circulation squeeze out a tiny 0.1 percent gain.
The New York Post reported a 1.2 percent gain in circulation while cross-town rival, the Daily News, saw its numbers shrink by 1.3 percent.
The New York Times also reported a decline in circulation, falling 3.4 percent.
ABC figures now include paid print circulation plus paid digital editions. New rules also allow papers to count “verified” circulation — which is not paid but certified as having been distributed to consumers for free.
And for the first time, the rules include “branded editions” — so papers such as the Chicago Sun-Times and the San Jose Mercury News, which have smaller-circulation sister papers, can also count that circulation.
The changes make it difficult to compare current circulation numbers with the past.
In fact, the ABC said “because of the new and redefined categories of circulation” the group now “recommends not making any direct comparison of the 2011 data to prior audit periods.”
The Newspaper Association of America worked for the past several years to bring about the changes.
“Today’s report marks the culmination of a three-year process in which newspaper publishers and the advertisers together worked in tandem with ABC to modify paid circulation reporting to more accurately reflect newspapers’ total audiences available in today’s marketplace,” said NAA President John Sturm.
“The new definition and formats reflect changes in the way publishers market their newspaper to readers,” he added.
The NAA said that total print ad revenues have fallen to $22.8 billion in 2010, a 52 percent drop from the $47.8 billion reported in 2005.
Tweet talk
One Twitter user in Abbottabad was live tweeting the raid on bin Laden’s compound without realizing it Sunday.
“Helicopter hovering over Abbottabad at 1 am [is a rare event],” wrote Sohaib Athar.
He stayed with the helicopter crash and explosion before ultimately figuring out what the commotion was about.
“Uh oh, now I’m the guy who live blogged the Osama raid without knowing it,” he wrote.
But even as the press clamored for interviews, he remained pretty humble.
“I am just a TWEETER awake at the time of the crash,” he wrote. “Not many Twitter users in Abbottabad. These guys are more into Facebook. That’s it.”
Still, some in the old media world hope and believe there is enough demand for the nearly 10-year hunt for Bin Laden to warrant special editions.
Time, which had already put out a special edition on the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, decided to crank out another special edition on the death of bin Laden.
Editor Rick Stengel said it was the first time that the magazine had put out three issues in the course of a week — it had already produced the royal wedding special and its regular weekly issue.
Tina Brown, who was covering the royal wedding, is also moving to rush Newsweek to market. Normally, it hits on Monday, but this week, the deadline is being moved up and it will be hitting on Friday — three days earlier than normal.
Tab tales
The loneliness of the city’s night people is one of the underlying themes of Pete Hamill‘s new thriller, “Tabloid City,” from the Little Brown imprint of Hachette, which is set to have 45,000 copies on booksellers’ shelves tomorrow.
Hamill sure wasn’t lonely himself at a jam-packed reading at New York University’s Arthur Carter School of Journalism on Monday night.
Everyone from Pulitzer Prize winner Jimmy Breslin, who has a new bio out on MLB exec Branch Rickey, to AP Executive Editor Mi chael Oreskes and ex- Daily News reporter- turned-MTA media liai son Sal Arena turned out.
“Carlito’s Way” author Judge Eddie Torres, and Michael Norman, co-author of “Tears in the Darkness,” about the Bataan Death March, were all on hand. kkelly@nypost.com