Last month, the Alliance for Audited Media released its latest circulation report which was hardly a blip on the radar screen for most of the general public- but for this print media buyer, (and former print ad rep) it was a big deal. (I should probably warn you - this blog may be considered a blant). The report from the effective governing third party of the industry showed significant growth - we're talking in the 76% to 94% range - for some of the most recognizable newspaper brands in the country, like USA Today. So what's my problem? This is great news, right? Newspapers are not dying - they're growing again - yippee! Well, my problem is in the reporting. If you dig into these statistics like Media Life has done in this article, you will see there are major issues with how they are arriving at these "gains."
