The Washington Post’s average Sunday circulation dropped 20.2 percent over 2011, according to the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations report. But just like in the May report, the September report didn’t count the Post’s branded editions with its Sunday numbers.
That branded edition is Savings Now, an advertising product with editorial content that’s home-delivered to non-Post subscribers. It added 119,029 to the Sunday 2011 numbers. Subtract that from the difference between 2011’s average Sunday circulation (846,019) and 2012’s (674,751), and you have a real drop of 52,239, or a little more than 7 percent.
In May, Washington Post spokesperson Kris Coratti told Poynter the Post was working on a review of Savings Now with ABC. The Post has “completed the process with ABC and plan to have Savings Now back on the 2013 statements,” Coratti tells Poynter in an email.
There’s no such mitigation of the average daily numbers, however, which are down nearly 9 percent, from 507,465 in 2011 to 462,228 in 2012.
Related: New York Times circulation up 40% as newspaper numbers generally flat | Newspaper circulation stays the same, but the mix is shifting to digital | Washington Post’s Sunday circulation drop not as steep as it appears
