Chicago dailies rank in new ABC circulation report

Chicago's daily newspapers rank #9 and #10 in the Audit Bureau of Circulation's most recent report on top U.S. newspapers for the six months ending in March. The Chicago Sun-Times is 9th with a total average circulation of 422,335 -- a 0.7 percent increase. The Chicago Tribune is 10th with a total average circulation of 414,590 -- a 5.17 percent decline. "Digital circulation now accounts for 14.2 percent of newspapers’ total circulation mix, up from 8.66 percent in March 2011," said Neal Lulofs, Executive Vice President and General Manager, ABCi. "Digital circulation may be tablet or smartphone apps, PDF replicas, metered or restricted-access websites, or e-reader editions." For a year and a half, ABC has incorporation newspapers' transformation into an industry that's the source for multi-media delivery of contents instead of exclusively the print platform. The "total average circulation" data for the Sun-Times shows the daily with about 200,000 verified print copies and more than 68,000 digital deliveries, plus 152,000 "branded editions." ABC defines that category as "editions of the newspaper that are published at least weekly, have a different name than the member newspaper, but are labeled to include the word 'edition.' Branded editions may include commuter, community or alternative-language newspapers." The Tribune shows higher print numbers (387,000 copies), more than 27,000 digital deliveries, but no branded editions.