Times Change: The Wall Street Journal Now Top-Selling Daily

"Wall Street Journal surpasses USA Today as No. 1"
The Associated Press, via Breitbart.com (October 14, 2009)

"The Wall Street Journal has surpassed USA Today as the top-selling daily newspaper in the United States.

"The Audit Bureau of Circulations won't be releasing its latest figures until Oct. 26, but the Journal said Wednesday that it gained about 12,000 subscribers in the April-September period, compared with a year earlier.

"That puts its average Monday-Friday circulation at 2.02 million.

"USA Today, which has long been No. 1, said last week that it had its worst circulation decline ever, dropping 17 percent to 1.88 million.

"Audit rules allow newspapers to count some online-only subscriptions. The Journal, a unit of News Corp.-owned Dow Jones & Co., is among the few major newspapers that charge for access to much of its Web site. USA Today does not...."

The AP explains that it isn't that the Wall Street Journal is doing so well:

"...For the most part, however, the Journal's new status as No. 1 is the result of a steep decline at USA Today. Like most major dailies, the Gannett Co.-owned newspaper is struggling because of the recession and the flight of readers to the Web...."

That's most likely part of the explanation.

I also think that the "flight of readers to the Web" is due at least in part to people discovering that traditional news media has printed not so much "all the news that's fit to print," as "all the news we feel like printing."

The article gives a pretty good look at what's happening to USA Today and the Wall Street Journal - from the viewpoint of old-school journalists.

I discuss my take on what's happening to traditional news media in America in another blog. One that's considerably more 'apathetic' than this one.

Sort-of-related posts, from Another War-on-Terror Blog:

• "What is an Information Gatekeeper?"
  (August 14, 2009)
• "Somali-American Rally in Protest Against Terrorism in Minneapolis Today: Probably"
  (July 3, 2009)
• "Journalism in the Information Age, Or Nothing Says 'No' Like a Brightly Burning Motorcycle"
  (June 24, 2009)
• "North Korea, American Journalists, the Internet, and Power to the People"
  (June 16, 2009)
• "The New York Times, Insularity, and Assumptions"
  (October 21, 2008)
• "DC Gun Ban, Online Censorship, Individual Rights, and Power to the People"
  (June 27, 2008)