Following this morning's release by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (confirming "yet again that major metros are struggling to show growth. The losses are steep while the gains are meager."), NAA president and CEO John Sturm, senior vice president and chief marketing officer John Kimball, vice president of circulation John Murray and executive vice president of Journal Communications Betsy Brenner all held a conference call briefing this morning to discuss the latest data.

"According to the NAA analysis of 100-plus newspapers in the top markets," said Sturm, "newspaper Web sites increased total audience by an average of eight percent. Among 25- to 34-year-olds, at least 17 papers demonstrated net audience gains of 20 percent or more. In addition, NAA reports that the growth of the online newspaper audience is reaching an all-time high."

Sturm noted that focusing on circulation numbers alone to assess the state of the newspaper industry is painting an incomplete picture. "Data that measure the expanded audience is precisely what advertisers want to enhance their understanding of consumer use across newspapers' multiple media platforms. Simply focusing on print circulation numbers in a vacuum obscures that understanding."

Sturm admitted that circulation figures can be used to measure certain sales where the media buy is more geographically based, such as pre-printed inserts.

For more info on the NAA analysis of Fas-Fax data, click here. For more details on the numbers, click here.