hopelessly devoted to deconstructing popular culture and conventional wisdom, one blog at a time

Mythbusting newspaper circulation

Published Wednesday, October 13, 2004 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

All is not well in newspaperland, and the bad news is not just being delivered by the Internet. The gummint, as they say back in Idaho, is launching one of them thar "fact-finding investigations" into how the big newspaper chains tally up their daily circulation figures. It's no secret that newspapers use all sorts of shady tactics to inflate their subscription rolls. A prime example: The "free" newspapers you find at your hotel door whether you want to read them or not. Yes, I'm talking about you, USA Today.