Journal Sentinel Has Lost 81% Of Readers

330 Kilbourn, where the Journal Sentinel offices are located. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

What are the precise circulation numbers for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel? That has been a mystery for years, as the newspaper doesn’t report the numbers and doesn’t reply to media requests about this.

In the good old days the newspaper regularly reported this. In 2003, the paper reported that its daily readership, which had been declining for some years, actually increased by 3% the prior year. As a result, the JS stood at a Sunday circulation of 434,668 and daily circulation of 257,599.

That was probably the last real increase the paper ever saw. As the growth of the internet undermined the newspaper industry, the JS saw its readership steadily decline. In 2005 it had 405,009 Sunday and 237,333 daily subscribers, in 2008 it reported 384,539 Sunday and 217,755 daily readers. By 2011 it had dropped to 326,262 Sunday and 188,819 daily readers.

After this, things began to get more murky and complicated. Its past circulation figures came from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which provided data for many newspapers, and changed its name to the Alliance of Audited Media, or AAM, in 2012, the new name reflecting the growth of other forms of news media. Meanwhile, the Journal Sentinel added a paywall for its online content toward the end of 2011.

In 2012 the JS reported another big decline in print circulation, of 8.2% for Sundays and 7% for daily circulation. However the story noted that with digital readership included the paper saw a total increase in Sunday and daily readership.

But how was that digital readership measured? Did it include print subscribers who also clicked on the newspaper’s website? Did it count unpaid readers who use it each month till they hit the paywall? The story didn’t say.

Meanwhile, the JS stopped those regular reports of its circulation. Checking the NewsBank archive of JS stories, not one story revealing its circulation numbers could be found since 2012. Over the years since then, in response to questions about its circulation by Urban Milwaukee, JS editor George Stanley, now retired, always declined to comment.

But there were clear signs of a problem. Beginning in 2019, some far different, drastically lower numbers were reported in the newspaper’s “Annual Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation,” which are required by the United States Post Office and must be filed annually in October. They show that the Journal Sentinel had dropped to an average daily circulation of 92,847 in 2019, which included 7,762 “electronic” or digital copies. That represented a nearly 50% drop from the daily readership the paper claimed just eight years earlier, in 2011. Needless to say the newspaper didn’t report this.

Each year those numbers have steadily dropped, to 79,372 average daily circulation in 2020, 68,892 in 2021, 58,798 in 2022 and 47,567 in 2023.

And it was not just print subscriptions that were declining. The annual statement shows there has been a 33% decline in electronic subscribers, dropping from 7,762 in 2019 to a dismal 5,152 this year. None of this was reported by the newspaper.

Is it possible electronic copies are different than digital copies? Not according to Mary Ziegler, Distribution Office Coordinator for Madison Media Partners, who handles these reports for the Cap Times and Wisconsin State Journal. She told Urban Milwaukee that “electronic copies are the digital edition of our newspapers.”

Is it possible the numbers include only those who use the “replica” digital edition of the daily paper? No, she noted, the figures include all digital subscribers to the newspaper, whether they choose to read a paper’s replica edition or its website’s display of stories.

And yet the numbers seemed different than those reported by Gannett in its annual report listing circulation for all its newspapers. In 2021, for instance, Gannett showed the combined (print and digital) daily circulation for the Journal Sentinel at 75,676, compared to 68,892 on the annual owners statement by the Journal Sentinel.

But in 2022 the combined circulation numbers reported by Gannett dropped drastically for nearly every newspaper the company owned, starting with its flagship paper, USA Today, which saw its daily circulation plummet to 163,036, compared to 781,063 in 2021. The Detroit Free Press saw its Sunday circulation drop from 896,634 to 103,606 in one year and the Columbus Dispatch saw its daily circulation drop from 137,374 to 35,235.

How were such incredible declines possible? “In 2021, AAM worked with publishers and buyers on AAM’s news media committees to revise the rules for digital reporting,” as it website noted. Free riders clicking on a website would no longer count as digital subscribers, nor would repeated visits by print or digital subscribers. Digital subscription numbers are “based on payment, not access,” AAM noted.

The change resulted in a significant decline in the Journal Sentinel’s numbers, though not nearly as bad as for most Gannett papers. From 2021 to 2022 its Sunday combined (print and digital) circulation dropped from 115,026 to 75,061 and its combined daily circulation dropped from 75,676 to 48,158,

If you average the daily and Sunday circulation it comes very near to the Statement of Ownership, which had the average circulation at 58,798 in 2022. And that number dropped to 47,567 in the October 2023 owner’s statement, meaning we will likely see a further decline in Gannett’s next annual report, which comes out in January 2024.

But even using last January’s Gannett numbers, the JS has lost 83% of its Sunday circulation over the past two decades, dropping from 434,668 in 2003 to 75,061 in 2022. It has lost 81% of its daily readership dropping from 257,599 in 2003 to 48,158. These are dreadful numbers. Yes, the Journal Sentinel hasn’t declined as badly as many Gannett papers, but that’s like being located in the higher quarters of a sinking ship.

Moreover, the AAM’s revised rules allow a publication to count print subscribers a second time on any days they also access the paper’s digital edition. That arguably inflates the true number of subscribers. On the other hand the reported circulation numbers exclude the free riders who read what stories they can before hitting a newspaper’s pay wall. So maybe the two factors even out.

I shared these numbers with the Journal Sentinel’s current editor. Greg Borowski, and he declined to comment. He referred me to Lark-Marie Anton, Chief Communications Officer at Gannett, who sent me a terse email saying “We do not disclose circulation data at the market level. For publicly disclosed subscription data, kindly review our 10K report,” meaning its annual report.

I don’t blame either of them for declining to discuss the damage.