Common Sense Journalism blogger Douglas Fisher points out that not all the circulation newspapers have lost in the last few decades was the result of changing lifestyles and the rise of other sources of information.
“What the chains don’t tell you is how much circulation they intentionally have shed in this time. As late as the mid-1990s, many states had a dominant paper or two with statewide or regional bureaus, early state editions designed to reach the tiniest hamlets, etc. Most of those have now been shed as newspapers, fighting to pare costs, have pulled back into what they see as their defensible market areas. Maybe there is a study out there that shows how many readers have been dropped as a result; I’ve not seen one. But it is not insignificant and, I would imagine, totals tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of readers.”