| September 2006 | |
Weeklies hold 62% market penetrationReport shows good news in spite of falling circulationThe nation’s largest newspapers continue to report gloom and doom about how they are losing circulation and readers to the Internet and other non-traditional media, but in Texas newspapers are holding strong in at least one major category — market penetration. Texas Press Association analyzed figures from the newspaper database and found a few numbers to cheer about. The group with the highest penetration rate (circulation versus city population) is semiweeklies in towns of less than 10,000 people. In that category, semiweeklies have 63 percent market penetration and an average circulation of 3,576. Weekly newspapers also in towns of less than 10,000 population are not far behind with a 62 percent market penetration rate and an average circulation of 1,886. Semiweeklies in towns of 10,001 to 50,000 people only have 23 percent penetration and 3,673 average circulation. Weeklies in that same population range are lower with 13 percent market penetration and 2,881 average circulation. Dailies in small towns also showed good market penetration but less than their weekly and semiweekly counterparts. In towns of less than 50,000 people, dailies have a 35 percent market penetration with 7,141 average circulation. Dailies in towns of between 50,000 to 100,000 people also have a 35 percent penetration but boast a much higher average circulation at 25,836. In Texas’ five biggest cities the state’s five largest dailies only have a 37 percent market penetration and an average 354,592 circulation. |
|