Times Becomes Nation’s Largest Metro Daily

The Los Angeles Times has surpassed the New York Daily News to become the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in America in weekday circulation, according to preliminary figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The numbers also offer some of the first insight available into what happened to the readers of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner after it closed last November. At the time of its demise, the Herald Examiner reported a circulation of roughly 230,000. However, perhaps up to 100,000 of those already bought a second newspaper.

Of the remainder, perhaps 50,000 to 70,000 now may have stopped reading a daily newspaper altogether, newspaper executives estimate.

Of the rest, about two-thirds appear to have switched to the Los Angeles Times, Publisher David Laventhol has estimated. Another third, perhaps about 20,000 more, may have taken other papers, particularly the Daily News, published in Woodland Hills.

Overall, The Times’ weekday circulation for the six months ended March 31 rose by 90,237 to 1,210,077.

The New York Daily News, in the meantime, shrank in weekday circulation by 50,047 to 1,180,139, allowing The Times to surpass it. Two national circulation newspapers, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, are still larger than The Times. Journal circulation is 1,935,866. USA Today circulation is 1,387,233.

The Times’ Sunday circulation also rose 81,230 to 1,504,540. That makes it the second-largest Sunday paper in the country, following the New York Times, which has a Sunday circulation of 1,706,013, about 300,000 of which comes from its national edition. The weekend edition of USA Today, published Fridays, sells 1,753,537 copies.

The Los Angeles Times also seemed to reverse a trend of declining market share in Orange County, where it is locked in a battle for readers with the Orange County Register.

The Times’ weekday circulation increased 13,342 in Orange County to 179,981. Register circulation rose 4,054 to a total of 349,019. Register circulation in Orange County itself, however, rose by 349.

On Sundays, Times circulation in Orange County rose 15,526, Times officials said. The Register rose 9,365, of which 6,838 was in Orange County.

Roughly half of The Times’ overall circulation growth came from picking up former readers of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Publisher Laventhol has said. For the six-month average, which includes about a month during which the Herald Examiner was still publishing, The Times shows a gain of about 50,000 former Herald Examiner readers.

But the actual number of Herald Examiner readers moving to other papers may be somewhat higher if the measure includes only the three-month average since January, after the Herald Examiner had expired.

The three-month average for the Los Angeles Times, which appears on Page One, is, for instance, 15,000 higher than the six-month average, suggesting that The Times may have picked up 60,000 Herald readers.

The second-largest beneficiary of the Herald Examiner’s demise was apparently the Daily News in the San Fernando Valley. Daily News circulation rose 19,044 on weekdays to 202,384 and 12,682 on Sundays to 214,205.

Of that, circulation experts estimate that perhaps 10,000 may be from the Herald Examiner. Daily News executives were not available for comment.

The Long Beach Press-Telegram also appeared to gain Herald readers. Its circulation was up 4,614 to 134,071 weekdays. More than half that is from the Herald Examiner, estimated Dan Sidbury, Press-Telegram vice president of circulation.

Sidbury said that in the numbers since January “we’ve picked up about 7,000 daily from the Herald Examiner.”

Others inheriting Herald readers may include Copley Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Breeze in Torrance, the Santa Monica Evening Outlook and the San Pedro News-Pilot. Copley’s circulation rose by 3,055 to 129,358.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune in West Covina also grew by 3,865 weekdays to 63,742, some of it apparently attributable to the Herald.

The Pasadena Star-News also gained circulation, some also partly because of the Herald, although direct comparisons to 1989 were unavailable.

La Opinion, the city’s leading Spanish-language daily, registered impressive gains, up by 12,321 weekdays to 101,873, but it was showing similar growth even before the Herald disappeared, suggesting that these gains reflect natural growth in its market.