Looser auditing rules keeping some newspaper heads above water

For the six months ending in September, the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) put the lost circ of 379 newspapers in the U.S. at 10.6%, the deepest dip it has recorded yet. While the data gets a little murky, and it can be hard to tell the impact of the new auditing rule, 59 newspapers reported at least 5,000 electronic editions in their weekday circs, according to research by the Associated Press. In all but a handful of cases, digital subscribers were up quite a bit year-over-year.

Before April, the ABC wouldn't count a copy as sold unless it met a certain price threshold -- 25% of the base price. The new rule has lowered it to a penny a copy: basically a subscriber has to pay something.

Newspapers have had mixed approaches to managing circulation. Some have cut their delivery ranges to reduce costs where subscribers live far away. Others have offered hefty discounts to attract subscribers, since the circ numbers attract better advertising rates, which is where the industry's bread is buttered.

To protect themselves, many newspapers offer both digital and print copies as part of a standard subscription price. The reader can chose to read either (or both), but the newspaper gets to pick up two readers for the revenue of one. As long as they allocate a penny of that subscription revenue to the digital edition, they're all set.

The ABC says the move offers "greater pricing and marketing flexibility" ... which appears to be bundled with a side-order of optimism.