April 27 (Bloomberg) -- The decline in U.S. newspaper weekday circulation almost doubled in the six-month period through March as more readers got their news from the Internet, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations data.

Daily average circulation for 395 newspapers fell 7.1 percent to 34.4 million from 37.1 million a year earlier, Schaumburg, Illinois-based ABC said today in an e-mail. Circulation fell 3.6 percent in the year-ago period.

Of the top 10 newspapers, only News Corp.’s Wall Street Journal increased circulation. Gannett Co.’s USA Today, the largest U.S. newspaper, lost 7.5 percent and the New York Post had the biggest slump with 21 percent. Publishers including New York Times Co. and Gannett have boosted newsstand or subscription prices to help offset the circulation declines.

“Since the great majority of newspapers offer their content for free on the Web, readers are inclined to go there for their news and that hurts circulation,” said John Morton, a president of Morton Research Inc. in Silver Spring, Maryland. “These declines should continue at this pace until papers figure out a way to charge for their online content.”

Five publishers sought bankruptcy protection during the period and printed versions of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Rocky Mountain News were halted.

Of the 25 largest newspapers, 11 fell more than 10 percent, including the New York Daily News; the Philadelphia Inquirer, whose parent company filed for bankruptcy in February; the Boston Globe, owned by Times Co., and Hearst Corp.’s Houston Chronicle, ABC said.

USA Today

The Wall Street Journal’s circulation gained 0.6 percent to 2.08 million, while USA Today fell to 2.1 million, ABC data shows.

The Wall Street Journal expected “strong growth” in paid subscriptions -- those not given away free at hotels or airports -- in the coming six months, Robert Thomson, its managing editor, said in an interview.

Times Co.’s namesake newspaper lost 3.5 percent of its average daily circulation to 1.04 million, Tribune Co.’s Los Angeles Times fell 6.6 percent to 723,181 and Washington Post Co.’s flagship newspaper dropped 1.2 percent to 665,383, rounding out the top five.

Sunday circulation, typically the most lucrative for advertising, fell 5.4 percent at 557 newspapers to 42.1 million, according to ABC. New York Times, the largest among Sunday newspapers, lost 1.7 percent of its average on that day.

Because of an accounting change, ABC excluded 84 newspapers with paid circulation smaller than 50,000 this year and in the year-ago figures.

Top 25 U.S. Newspapers’ Average Weekday Paid Circulation

                                 Circulation            % Change
Rank   Newspaper             as of March ‘09    (Year over Year)
================================================================
1      USA Today                     2,113,725             -7.5
2      Wall Street Journal           2,082,189              0.6
3      New York Times                1,039,031             -3.6
4      Los Angeles Times               723,181             -6.6
5      Washington Post                 665,383             -1.2
6      New York Daily News             602,857            -14.3
7      New York Post                   558,140            -20.6
8      Chicago Tribune                 501,202             -7.5
9      Houston Chronicle               425,138            -14.0
10     Arizona Republic                389,701             -5.7
11     Denver Post                     371,728              N/A#
12     Newsday                         368,194             -3.0
13     Dallas Morning News             331,907             -9.9
14     Minneapolis Star Tribune        320,076             -0.7
15     Chicago Sun-Times               312,141             -0.04
16     San Francisco Chronicle         312,118            -15.7
17     Boston Globe                    302,638            -13.7
18     Cleveland Plain Dealer          291,630            -11.7
19     Detroit Free Press              290,730             -5.9
20     Philadelphia Inquirer           288,298            -13.7
21     Newark Star-Ledger              287,082            -16.8
22     St. Petersburg Times            283,093            -10.4
23     Oregonian                       268,512            -11.8
24     Atlanta. Journal-Constitution   261,828            -19.9
25     San Diego Union-Tribune         261,253             -9.5
================================================================
Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations

# - Denver Post figures are the average of weekdays beginning
Feb. 28, when it inherited the Rocky Mountain News’s
subscribers. ABC didn’t provide a corresponding figure for the
year-earlier period.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Bensinger in New York at gbensinger1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 27, 2009 16:27 EDT