Print Journalism Success Story

Forbes.com reports that, with daily newspaper circulation falling faster than ever, the print media is in trouble.

Daily circulation fell 3.57% from the same period last year for 530 U.S. newspapers reporting a Monday-through-Friday average for the six months ended March 31, according to data released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Among the 601 papers reporting Sunday circulation, circulation dropped 4.59%. Those numbers compare to declines of 2.6% for daily circulation and 3.5% for Sunday circulation during the six months ended Sept. 30.

Not here. Real Change circulation rose by 16% last year. 2008 circulation thus far is up by nearly 17%. More than five years ago, as we planned for the shift to weekly publication, we learned through focus groups that most people expect a street newspaper to be crap. This negative expectation was so strong that people could buy the paper over and over and never read it. They'd already made up their minds. Real Change, they thought, was about charity, not news. We made a decision to rebrand as an activist community newspaper and to lead with the quality. This year, Real Change took three awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. The vendors hear all the time that we're the best newspaper in Seattle. Quality journalism and compassionate community: it's a winning combination.