Plain
Dealer Circulation Continues Decline
Today’s Plain Dealer
carries the legally mandated annual statement of ownership, management and
circulation. Total paid and or requested average daily circulation for the
period ending September 15, 2011 fell last year below 260,000 to 259,993, or
barely half of what it once boasted. This year’s figure represents almost an
11% decline in circulation since March 2009 when its reported circulation was
291,630.
Daily newspaper circulation is of course declining across
the country, but as in other arenas, the implications for Greater Cleveland
have special impact. Newspapers have traditionally served as a common
denominator for the reporting and discussion of community news. The Plain Dealer has had this role almost
exclusively since the demise of The Cleveland Press in 1982. Although it often
performs the task abysmally, typically by what it fails to report — either
fairly or at all — its continued decline as a common springboard for discussion
is not healthy for northeast Ohio.
Editorial and publishing decisions made by the Plain Dealer’s parent company, Advance
Publications Inc., which also owns the Sun Newspapers suburban area chain, have
compounded this misfortune. Advance has effected the virtual journalistic
redlining of every municipality in Cuyahoga County where the African Americans
comprise forty percent or more.
The only literal exception to this redlining may be Richmond
Heights, where, incredibly, this little blog has arguably done more
independent, and accurate, reporting of key issues there in the past six months
than either the Plain Dealer or the Sun Messenger.
