AJC circulation falls but audience grows

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s weekday circulation of the printed newspaper declined significantly during the latest six-month reporting period. But the company said Friday that most of the decline resulted from “planned initiatives” and total readership in metro Atlanta grew slightly.

Weekday and Saturday print circulation fell to 264,053, down 19.3 percent from the same period a year earlier. Sunday print circulation fell to 462,011, down 7.1 percent.

Bob Eickhoff, senior vice president of operations, said the declines stem largely from moves to boost efficiency and cut costs amid the revenue slide squeezing the newspaper industry.

The AJC cut its distribution area from 74 to 49 counties in mid-2008, and to 27 counties this winter. Another cut, to 20 counties, happens this month. The paper is reducing its footprint in outlying counties to cut cost while continuing to focus on its core metro Atlanta distribution area.

The AJC also boosted single-copy prices, for papers bought singly at a rack or retail outlet instead of through home delivery, by 50 percent in the past year.

Factoring out those and other “planned initiatives,” circulation in the 28-county metro area fell about 5 percent weekdays and was flat on Sundays, Eickhoff said.

Even with these declines, the AJC’s total audience —- print and online —- grew 2 percent during the period.

Total weekly audience, including ajc.com visitors and weekday and Sunday paper readers, rose to 2.27 million in the 28-county metro area, according to data from Scarborough Research for the six months ended March 31. Scarborough said the AJC reaches 57 percent of the market’s adult population either online or in print.

Hyde Post, vice president, Internet, said ajc.com page views in March were a record 115.5 million, up 9 percent from a year earlier.

Views on mobile devices jumped 250 percent, to 3.5 million. “The next wave of growth appears to be mobile,” Post said.