Advertiser daily circulation up 38 percent

Advertiser Staff

The Honolulu Advertiser reported its daily circulation rose 38 percent to 151,808 and its Sunday circulation fell 4.3 percent to 176,727 in the 15 weeks after the newspaper ended a joint operating agreement with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

The figures, provided by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, are the first to show how Hawai'i newspaper readers are responding to the increased competition between the two publications since the 39-year-old joint operating agreement ended on March 15.

The Star-Bulletin and The Advertiser previously shared publishing, advertising and circulation departments. In March, the Star-Bulletin moved to new offices and began publishing a morning paper in addition to its traditional afternoon edition. The Advertiser, which had been a morning-only paper, also began publishing an afternoon edition.

The increased circulation puts The Advertiser among the 75 largest newspapers in the country for the first time, based on a September 2000 ranking compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Mike Fisch, president and publisher of The Advertiser, said the newspaper requested the special 15-week audit. "Because of the change, we felt it was important, and we committed to our advertisers that we would ask the Audit Bureau of Circulations to do this special audit so they would know what our circulation was in a reasonable period after the dissolution," he said.

"In the changing print landscape, it's important for advertisers to be able to verify publishers' circulation claims," Fisch said.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations, based in Schaumberg, Ill., is the leading independent media-auditing organization in the United States and Canada, verifying for advertisers the paid circulation of newspapers and magazines.

Most of The Advertiser's gain in circulation came from subscribers who previously took only the Sunday edition and have now signed up for all seven days. The newspaper is counting about 30,000 new daily subscribers thanks largely to a promotion that allowed Sunday-only subscribers to add either the daily morning or afternoon edition for the same price they were paying for Sunday, said Mike Cusato, vice president of circulation.

At the time the joint operating agreement ended, Star-Bulletin average daily circulation was 61,976 for the 50 weeks from April 2000 through March 15, according to numbers filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations. It did not publish a Sunday edition.

Don Kendall, president of Oahu Publications, publisher of the Star-Bulletin, said the newspaper will wait for its routine circulation audit in March.

"Our circulation is up marginally," said Kendall, who did not cite specific figures for daily or Sunday. "We believe it will continue to grow."

Daily home delivery of The Advertiser increased 61 percent to 106,253 as of July 1, up from 65,950 on March 14. Single copy sales — newspapers sold from coin boxes, stores or street vendors — rose 5 percent to 40,790 in that period. About 4,760 daily copies are sold to schools and mail subscribers.

"To have that kind of jump in home delivery and still be able to increase single-copy sales is very significant and speaks to the appeal of the product," said Cusato.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations said The Advertiser's Sunday home delivery was down 1.5 percent at 122,730, and single-copy Sunday sales were down 10 percent at 52,832.

Fisch said the Sunday results were encouraging for The Advertiser in light of the new Sunday newspaper in the market.

Kendall predicted that the Star-Bulletin would continue gaining Sunday readers.

Circulation figures are a key measure for companies' tracking the effectiveness of their advertising dollars.

Russ Wong, general manager of the Jackson Auto Group, which advertises in The Advertiser, said yesterday he was satisfied with the circulation figures.

"It sounds to me like they have achieved what they were going to do," Wong said.

The Advertiser's total circulation numbers would increase slightly under new rules adopted by the Audit Bureau of Circulations on April 1. The bureau changed its rules to allow newspapers to count copies paid for by third parties, such as airlines. Using those rules, The Advertiser would have daily circulation of 153,666, and Sunday circulation of 178,086.