Daily Sun circulation - increasing or decreasing?
 

Which numbers are you going to believe?

From the Online News site, Oct. 2, 2018:
"A publisher's statement printed in Tuesday's edition of The Villages Daily Sun shows the newspaper's circulation has dipped."

<snip>

"The 'Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation' appeared in 6-point type buried in the back of Tuesday's Sports section.

"It stated the newspaper's daily circulation as of Sept. 26 is 43,610. The publisher's statement from Sept. 25, 2016 indicated a daily circulation of 44,936. The publisher's statement from Oct. 1, 2014 indicated a daily circulation of 43,938."

<snip>

"Many of the Daily Sun copies that are counted as paid circulation aren't going to homes, but rather are complimentary copies made available through the sales centers and businesses such as Citizens First Bank."

From The Villages Daily Sun, Nov. 21, 2018:
"This week the Daily Sun marked its 21st consecutive year of circulation growth as verified by the Alliance for Audited Media, the industry standard for ensuring transparency among media companies and trust among advertisers.

"The Daily Sun is now the fifth largest newspaper in Florida, behind only the Tampa Bay Times, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Orlando Sentinel and the Palm Beach Post.

"The growth news comes while online sites struggle to win over subscribers and advertisers. The Daily Sun maintains a 92 percent daily market penetration, and 97 percent of residents read the newspaper at least once each week."

Nothing but Advertising
 

The Sun publishes no real news at all, I signed up for a one year subscription and after a few months realized it truly wasn’t a newspaper. So I started giving it to my neighbor. It’s worthless and not anything of value is printed on the paper it’s a waste of paper

It depends on what you want in a newspaper. It gives me a lot of information about people and events here and I use the ads all the time. For me, it’s quite useful.

Not a "real" newspaper - it is CHEAP

Simply not true. They publish a number of national news articles off the wires. I guess you aren't interested in national news. They have a pretty good sports section including coverage of the local sports teams. The Friday automotive section is pretty good. They publish a number of local articles about The Villages each week. Granted, some of these are "developer focused". Most of the material is available through other on-lines sources but many people prefer to read on paper and not on a computer monitor.

I wonder how many are daily subscriptions delivered to homes within The Villages. There are about 60,000 homes in The Villages.

Not sure why it makes any difference.

I like the paper. I subscribe. It feels like a real newspaper to me.

Of course, I'm not sure what a fake newspaper feels like.

I enjoy it, read it every day, like to read what's going on locally, sports, a little national and statewide news, nice break from cable news.

It must be a real newspaper, the ink rubs off on my hands.:MOJE_whot::1rotfl:

From that “layed back”, little known and underestimated Philosopher Justjim: The Daily Sun “Is what it is”. As far as circulation, it likely goes up in Season and a bit down during the summer. The Developers recent “take over” hopefully will improve their digital paper for those of us who go on “vacation” during the summer months.

The " other site " which claims to be a daily news source has been stirring up this issue [ DS circulation] recently , wonder why ?
Yet the " other site " does not disclose its circulation , its ownership , its editors or its publishers , wonder why ?

I don't believe that online news sources are required to publically disclose their circulation numbers. At least not yet....

Just one of the reasons I unsubscribed was: THE PRINT WAS TOO SMALL TO READ.

I don’t know why you care, or really want to know. I know for a fact that advertisers rely on audited statements of circulation, breaking out between paid and unpaid (complimentary). Advertising decisions are made based on circulation and readership demographics.

Circulation can vary quite a bit, and as a business decision, a newspaper tries to increase its circulation prior to an audit. Makes sense to me to do so.

To me, your question sounds like you are skeptical of the numbers. If you care so much, request a copy of the most recent audit.