One only has to look at the attrition of the print advertising revenue of America’s publicly traded newspaper companies to see the extent to which the newspaper industry has shrunk. Another, more specific measure, just as startling, is the paid print circulation of America’s 100 largest newspapers based on the same measure. This number has dropped by over a quarter at many papers in as little as three years.

The circulation drops are often due to strategic decisions by newspaper companies. Managements do not want to maintain the expense to print and ship papers well outside their home cities, which is an expensive distribution model. In other cases, media companies drop people who pay very little for the paper. Only subscribers who pay enough to be profitable customers remain. Papers in some cities, like Detroit, are no longer printed seven days a week. In each of these models, the plan is to cut the cost of their print circulation operations to either lower losses or make very modest profits.

The fallout of the slow destruction of the industry has been born to a substantial extent by four companies, which own the largest number of America’s top 100 papers based on combined paid print and paid digital circulation. These include Tronc Inc. (NASDAQ: TRNC), formerly known as Tribune Publishing, which owns papers in some of the largest cities in America. The Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune are the dailies in America’s second and third largest cities.

Tronc was recently a takeover target of Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI), the largest newspaper chain by the total paid circulation of its papers. Gannett does not own a large number of newspapers in America’s largest cities, but, by total newspaper count, it makes up for that. The biggest paper Gannett owns, the Record in New Jersey, it bought recently.

Another of the largest four largest publishers is debt-crippled McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI). With a debt load of nearly $1 billion, it can barely pay the service on the debt compared to the amount of its operating income. McClatchy’s largest papers are in Fort Worth and Miami.

Finally, privately held Digital First Media has a profit and loss statement that is hard to obtain because the company does not have to disclose it.

The only paper that currently has a paid circulation model that works extremely well is The New York Times, which had a recent surge in its total. At the end of the third quarter, New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) had 1,557,000 digital-only subscribers. According to the company, it added 132,000 paid subscribers between the election and the end of November. Presumably a large portion of these were digital.

Newspaper ownership among the largest properties falls primarily into four categories. The first is those owned by the large public corporations. The second are those controlled by private companies, the largest of which is the aforementioned Digital First Media, owned by private equity firm Alden Capital, Hearst. Advance Publications is another. It is controlled by the Newhouse family. The third model is papers owned by extremely rich individuals. The most well-known of these is the Washington Post, controlled by Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon.com. Another is the struggling New York Daily News, owned by real estate tycoon Mort Zuckerman. Hedge fund manager executive John Henry is the principal owner of the Boston Globe. The final model is papers owned by nonprofit enterprises. These include the Tampa Bay Times and Philadelphia Inquirer.

Below are the 100 largest newspapers in the United States based on combined print and digital paid subscriptions. Circulation data was provided by the Alliance for Audited Media and is for the third quarter of 2015. Circulation is the five-day average for publications that are published Monday through Friday. The list only compares newspapers that report this five-day average. To be included in total circulation figures, digital subscriptions must be restricted access and comply with AAM standards. Circulation figures also include affiliate publications as grouped by the AAM.

Rank	Newspaper	Owner	Circulation
1	New York Times	New York Times Company	2,237,601
2	Long Island Newsday	Patrick Dolan and Charles Dolan	512,118
3	Los Angeles Times	tronc, Inc.	507,395
4	New York Post	News Corp.	424,721
5	Dallas Morning News	A. H. Belo Corp.	410,587
6	Chicago Tribune	tronc, Inc.	384,962
7	Washington Post	Nash Holdings, LLC	356,768
8	Daily News (New York)	Mortimer Zuckerman	299,538
9	Amnewyork	Patrick Dolan and Charles Dolan	291,991
10	Star Tribune (Minneapolis)	Glen Taylor	285,129
11	Houston Chronicle	Hearst Corp.	276,445
12	Austin American	Cox Enterprises	246,963
13	Tampa Bay Times	Poynter Institute	245,042
14	Honolulu Star-Advertiser	Black Press Group Ltd.	243,376
15	The Record (Woodland Park, NJ)	Gannett Co.	242,567
16	Boston Globe	John W. Henry	232,546
17	Las Vegas Review-Journal	News + Media Capital Group LLC (Sheldon Adelson)	232,372
18	Philadelphia Inquirer	Interstate General Media	227,245
19	Fort Worth Star-Telegram	McClatchy Co.	215,476
20	The Denver Post / The Sunday Denver Post	Daily First Media	196,286
21	Arizona Republic	Gannett Co.	188,467
22	Metro New York	Seabay Media Holdings LLC	180,866
23	El Vocero De Puerto Rico	Publi-Inversiones	179,761
24	The Star-Ledger (Newark)	Advance Publications, Inc.	170,077
25	San Francisco Chronicle	Hearst Corp.	167,602
26	Columbus Dispatch	New Media Investment Group	164,995
27	Tribune Review (Pittsburgh)	Trib Total Media	161,665
28	The Palm Beach Post	Cox Enterprises	160,299
29	San Antonio Express-News	Hearst Corp.	158,986
30	Milwaukee Journal Sentinel	Gannett Co.	154,763
31	El Nuevo Dia	GFR Media	153,957
32	The Salt Lake Tribune / Deseret News	Huntsman Family Investments / Deseret Management Corporation	152,210
33	Express (Washington DC)	Nash Holdings, LLC	148,928
34	Kansas City Star	McClatchy Co.	146,730
35	Chicago Sun-Times	Wrapports, LLC	146,539
36	The Virginian-Pilot	Landmark Media Enterprises	143,682
37	Pittsburgh Post-Gazette	Block Communications	140,987
38	The Miami Herald / El Nuevo Herald	McClatchy Co.	139,735
39	South Florida Sun Sentinel	tronc, Inc.	135,404
40	Arkansas Democrat Gazette	WEHCO Media	130,552
41	Indianapolis Star	Gannett Co.	127,180
42	Advocate (Baton Rouge)	John Georges	126,976
43	St. Louis Post-Dispatch	Lee Enterprises, Inc.	124,712
44	The Baltimore Sun	tronc, Inc.	121,840
45	Buffalo News	Berkshire Hathaway	121,413
46	Hartford Courant	tronc, Inc.	114,227
47	Investor’s Business Daily (Los Angeles)	.	113,038
48	Metro Puerto Rico Llc	Metro International	107,690
49	Charlotte Observer	McClatchy Co.	107,321
50	Omaha World-Herald / Sunday World-Herald	Berkshire Hathaway	104,958
51	Cincinnati Enquirer	Gannett Co.	104,354
52	Telegram & Gazette / Sunday Telegram	New Media Investment Group	104,350
53	State (Columbia, SC)	McClatchy Co.	102,974
54	Courier-Journal (Louisville)	Gannett Co.	102,895
55	News & Observer (Raleigh)	McClatchy Co.	98,158
56	Oklahoman	The Anschutz Corporation	96,885
57	La Opinion (Los Angeles)	Impremedia	92,365
58	Richmond Times-Dispatch	Berkshire Hathaway	90,946
59	Albuquerque Journal	Journal Publishing Co.	89,635
60	Fresno Bee	McClatchy Co.	87,007
61	Tennessean	Gannett Co.	83,645
62	Democrat And Chronicle (Rochester, NY)	Gannett Co.	82,510
63	Des Moines Register	Gannett Co.	82,371
64	Boston Herald, Boston Sunday Herald	Herald Media Inc.	81,933
65	Metro Philadelphia	Seabay Media Holdings LLC	79,044
66	Daily Herald, The Sunday Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)	Paddock Publications	78,878
67	Indice (San Juan)	GFR Media	76,962
68	Blade (Toledo)	Block Communications	76,642
69	Republican (Springfield, MA)	Advance Publications, Inc.	76,353
70	Primera Hora (San Juan)	GFR Media	74,215
71	Asbury Park Press (Neptune, NJ)	Gannett Co.	73,194
72	Post And Courier (Charleston)	Evening Post Publishing Co.	69,433
73	Metro Boston	Seabay Media Holdings LLC	68,966
74	Wisconsin State Journal	Lee Enterprises, Inc.	67,965
75	Akron Beacon Journal, Sunday Akron Journal	Black Press Group Ltd.	65,783
76	Tulsa World	Berkshire Hathaway	61,817
77	Morning Call (Allentown)	tronc, Inc.	60,962
78	The News Journal Media Group (New Castle, DE)	Gannett Co.	60,620
79	Florida Times-Union	Morris Publishing Co.	60,399
80	Arizona Daily Star	Lee Enterprises	57,735
81	Roanoke Times	Berkshire Hathaway	54,293
82	Chattanooga Times Free Press	WEHCO Media, Inc.	53,552
83	News Tribune (Tacoma, WA)	McClatchy Co.	53,510
84	Standard-Examiner (Ogden, UT)	Sandusky Newspapers, Inc.	53,298
85	LNP / Sunday LNP (Lancaster, PA)	LNP Media Group	52,976
86	Daytona Beach News-Journal	New Media Investment Group	52,414
87	Press Democrat (Santa Rosa)	Sonoma Media Investments LLC	51,710
88	Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY)	The Hume Family	50,974
89	Journal News (White Plains, NY)	Gannett Co.	50,699
90	New Haven Register	Digital First Media	50,658
91	Modesto Bee	McClatchy Co.	49,406
92	Journal Gazette, News Sentinel (Fort Wayne, IN)	The Journal Gazette Co. / Ogden Newspapers, Inc.	48,199
93	Times Union (Albany)	Hearst Corp.	48,144
94	Lincoln Journal Star	Lee Enterprises, Inc.	47,831
95	Sarasota Herald-Tribune	New Media Investment Group	47,400
96	Journal Star (Peoria, IL)	New Media Investment Group	46,947
97	Wichita Eagle	McClatchy Co.	46,709
98	South Bend Tribune	Shurz Communications	44,951
99	Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)	Guard Publishing Co.	44,697
100	Gazette (Colorado Springs)	Clarity Media Group	44,072
Circulation Data Source: Alliance for Audited Media – Q3 2015

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