Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Herald circ. continues to plummet - UPDATED

The Audit Bureau of Circulations report on newspaper circulations for the six-month period that ended on March 31st is out and the news is ugly for the Miami Herald.

The Miami Herald reported daily circulation lost more than 11% with 240,223 copies while Sunday dropped 9% to 311,245.
Meanwhile the news wasn't as bad for El Nuevo Herald.
El Nuevo Herald, the sibling of The Miami Herald, reported weekday circulation slipped 1.3% to 79,963. Sunday circ was off 2% to 88,035.
I have heard reports that not many Herald Employees have opted for the buyout the company is offering which consists of 75% of the employee's salary for one year.

On the share price front, McClatchy closed today at $10.50 which is somewhat better than the all-time low of $7.93 on a week ago but abysmal compared to the 52-week high of $34.32 and the $44 dollar range the stock traded at in October of 2006.

UPDATE: Anonymous commenter says that the details of the buyouts are different than what I had heard:
The buyout offer is two weeks' salary for each year of service, up to six months' salary. There's also an insurance option - full coverage for three months, or no coverage but additional payout, or longer coverage with a smaller payout.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your facts are incorrect. The buyout offer is two weeks' salary for each year of service, up to six months' salary. There's also an insurance option - full coverage for three months, or no coverage but additional payout, or longer coverage with a smaller payout.

Anonymous said...

If these trends in circulation continue, then The Herald's daily circulation will drop below 200k next year and then head to the 100k mark in 2012.

At what point is the newspaper's regional relevance in jeopardy?