Summary Box: Circulation at US magazines falls 2.2 percent in second half

Summary Box: US magazine sales fall 2.2 percent

MAGAZINE CIRCULATION DOWN: The Audit Bureau of Circulations says U.S. magazine circulation dropped 2.2 percent in the second half of 2009. Sales at newsstands and other retail sites fell 9 percent, while paid subscriptions fell 1.1 percent.

PAIN FOR PUBLISHERS: The steep falloff in single-copy sales is especially important because publishers charge more per copy than they do for subscriptions, which are generally discounted so publishers can boost the overall circulation they can promise advertisers. And publishers are also facing declines in advertising revenue.

LASTING CHANGES: John Harrington, an industry analyst, says that while the single-copy declines reflect people being more careful in their spending, “that may have resulted in permanent changes. It’ll take a little while longer to determine that completely.”