McHenry County Blog

Circulation figures have been released by the Audit Bureau of Circulation and the Northwest Herald is down a bit.

Sunday circulation has held relatively stable at more than 34,000 since 2009, while daily circulation had dropped about about 2,000.

September 30, 2012, circulation figures for the Northwest Herald.

Comparable figures for 2011 are below:

Northwest Herald circulation figures from September 30, 2011.

Information from 2010 showed weekday circulation is 30,950 and Sunday’s papers at 34,391, my article reports.

The 2009 and 1993 information is here.

September 30, 2009, circulation figures for the Northwest Herald, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Fox News showed this film of Pearl Harbor on the 7th.

There may be something symbolic here, but I doubt it was intentional.

On Wednesday, December 6, 2011, the Chicago Sun-Times announced that the next day, the 70th anniversary of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, it would start charging for its internet content.

If one subscribes, as I do, the cost will be $1.99 per month. Why I would need internet access to article that are next to my garage every morning escapes me.

Will people pay $19.99 a month to read the details of what they see on the newstand?

It would seem that subscribers should get free access.

If you don’t subscribe, the cost will be $6.99 per month.

The article notes that the Daily Herald started the trend and charges $19.99 per month (after 15 page views).

The article notes that newspaper advertising in 2005 was $47.4 billion. That was cut in half by 2010.

Not until taking leaves to the street did I discover this copy of the Northwest Herald in our driveway.

Tonight while finishing leaf raking for the fall, I noticed something in a plastic sleeve at the end of our driveway.

Unwrapping it, I found that it was a solicitation from the Northwest Herald, along with a copy of the paper.

Above the fold were articles about ex-Governor Rod Blajojevich’s 14-year sentence and the rejection of both Centegra’s and Mercy’s applications for new hospitals.

Somehow, the summitry of the two stories appealed to me.

After all, it was Stuart Levine’s insistence on his favorite construction firm to build Mercy’s Crystal Lake hospital that started the unraveling of the Blagojevich corruption.

The Northwest Herald's subscription apeal.

But, back to the NWH’s offer.

Just $1 a week.

75% off the “regular home delivery price!”

“Hurry…Offer expires 12/31/11.”

Strange.

I have had multiple calls this year offering the same deal.

The pitch must have worked, because, unlike all sorts of other newspapers, the NW Herald’s circulation has been holding constant on weekdays and is up a bit on Sunday.

Somehow the NW Herald does not seem willing to match its penny for six months subscription offered at a Crystal Lake Business Expo several years ago.

That was too good a deal to pass up.

Every quarter the Audit Bureau of Circulation certifies the circulation of its member newspapers.

McHenry County’s dominant daily, the Northwest Herald, has been aggressively courting potential subscribers.

Besides phone calls, repeated phone calls, I might add, last Friday a man was sitting at a card table in Menard’s offering subscriptions for $2 a week. And, not only that, the pitch went, a gift card, too. $25-$50, if memory serves me correctly.

In any event, comparing end of March circulation figures with those six months later shows the Northwest Herald maintaining its sales while the industry as a whole is declining.

Daily circulation went up 138 t0 31,192, while Sunday paper sales went up 654 to 34,666.

Looking at what I have put up below from the ABC, I see the NWH’s figures are listed as “preliminary figures subject to audit.”

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the Northwest Herald reports weekday circulation is  30,950.

A year ago, it was 32,934, 1,984 more.

The number of Sunday’s papers at the end of September, 2010, was pegged at almost 35,000–34,391 to be exact.

A year ago, that figure was 34,951, so it appears Sunday circulation has increased somewhat.

Daily circulation in September, 1993, was 29,095.

The 2009 population estimate for McHenry County was 320,961. In 1990, it was 183,241, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. McHenry County population grew 75% from 1990 to 2009.

Here's the pitch for the Northwest Herald made at the 2009 Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce Business Expo at South High School. Less than a penny a day, a deal I did not pass up. Click to enlarge.

It hasn’t been that long ago that a solicitor for the Northwest Herald called.

When I discovered that the price was more than the less than a penny a paper for six months that I found at the Crystal Lake Business Expo in 2009, I subscribed. My six-month subscription lasted until October or November.

The price was a dollar for six months.

So, what’s the price now?

The pleasant young man said $2.50 a week.

That’s for the first ten weeks.

When I was able to resist, he asked if I would be interested in $1.60 for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

“There’s more news during the week,” I pointed out.

He countered with how fat the Sunday paper is.

“But, it mainly ads,” I replied.

The Audit Bureau of Circulation recently released circulation figures for all its newspaper subscribers.

For some reason, the Northwest Herald did not share them with its readers.

Found this on Halloween and it must be scary to the daily newspaper of record in McHenry County.

The Northwest Herald’s weekday circulation figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation for the six months from April through September, 2009, fell by over 5%.  Down 1,825 in sales daily.

Just under 33,000 for the weekdays, 35,000 for the Sunday edition.

Check out the difference in circulation yourself.

Circulation averages for the six months ended 9/30/2009

Circulation averages for the six months ended 3/31/2009
It’s lots better than the 29,000 16 years ago in 1993, as you can see below:

Wikepedia reports, however, “circulation of nearly 40,000” for the Northwest Herald.