US newspaper circulations 2025: Washington Post print declines 21% in a year
The combined average daily print circulation at 25 of the largest audited newspapers in the US fell by 12.5% in the year to the end of September 2025, according to new data from Alliance for Audited Media (AAM).
Figures supplied exclusively to Press Gazette show that only one title among the top 25 by combined print and digital circulations saw a rise in print circulation year on year.
However, AAM has flagged that its circulation data does not include all digital newspaper subscriptions, and the non-profit organisation rolled out new digital reporting rules in February 2026.
[Read more: Alliance for Audited Media to modernise publisher digital circulation reporting]
The largest year-on-year decline was at The Washington Post, which saw its average daily print circulation down by 21.2% to 87,576 in the six months to 30 September 2025, from 111,171 a year earlier.
During this period, the paper saw “significant subscription cancellations”, alongside the Los Angeles Times, after its owners decided not to endorse a candidate in the presidential race.
The Los Angeles Times saw the second-biggest drop in average print circulation, down 19.8% to 63,492.
The period also saw The Washington Post cut around 4% of its workforce – fewer than 100 people – in January 2025 across its business division, as well as offering voluntary buyouts to an unknown number of staff in May.
This was followed by mass layoffs announced at the beginning of this year, with more than 300 out of about 800 journalists axed, according to The New York Times).
Collectively, the 25 papers in this analysis circulated 1.74 million issues per day on average in the six months to September, down 11.7% from 1.97 million in 2023.
The data includes two papers that publish on Wednesdays and Sundays only, the: Tampa Bay Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune.
The 11.7% decrease is less than a year earlier, when the top 25 US newspapers recorded a circulation decrease of 12.7%.
Some titles included in last year’s ranking, such as the Hawaii’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser, are not featured on the latest list since they are no longer audited by AAM.
The highest-circulation newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, saw print circulation fall by 12.9%, from 473,717 to 412,428.
The Wall Street Journal was followed by The New York Times in circulation (down 8.6% to 228,755), then by the New York Post (down 4.2% to 117,037).
The Florida-based Villages Daily Sun was the only title to see a circulation increase, up 4.2% from 46,750 to 48,716.
Of the ten papers with the biggest circulation declines, two are owned by Alden Global Capital (Chicago Tribune and The Denver Post).
The Chicago Tribune recorded the third-biggest fall in circulation, down 19.7% to 48,575.
Gannett owned the most titles among the ten worst performers, with three papers – Arizona Public (down 19% to 32,805), Milwaukee Journal (down 14.8% to 25,023) and USA Today (down 13.8% to 89,215).
While print decline is ongoing across the industry, including in the UK, publishers are increasingly measuring performance by digital performance, including website traffic and digital subscriptions.
Titles reporting print circulation in the hundreds of thousands attract millions of monthly site visits and digital subscribers.
Press Gazette’s monthly top 50 ranking of news websites in the US showed that The New York Times accounted for the most visits in the month with 433.6 million.
Although the Wall Street Journal maintains higher print circulation than the New York Times, it ranks significantly lower for online traffic, placing 20th out of 50 with 61 million visits.
Across digital subscriptions, Press Gazette’s 100k Club ranking of biggest subscription sites in the world revealed The New York Times to rank highest with 12.2 million digital subscribers as of February 2026 (including subscribers for non-news products).
The Wall Street Journal ranks third with 4.3 million subscribers in February 2026, while The Washington Post fell behind with 2.5 million subscribers as of February 2025 (estimated figure).
AAM chief executive Richard Murphy told Press Gazette the “migration of how people are consuming news” can make comparisons tricky.
“I’m not sure if it’s a reduction in print subscriber or a migration of how people are consuming news, and if you look at how subscriptions are sold now… It’s really changed over the years,” he said.
“A lot of subscriptions now, it’s the web, it’s an app, it might be an E-edition, and it may or may not include print… Now, print is a paid-for premium… when we were looking at our membership, we still had a lot of those rules and hurdles where print was the centre and digital was an add-on.”
AAM’s new modernised reporting is set to “give credit” to a wider range of audience channels, such as cross-device consumption, which could depict a more complete picture of performance for the US titles.
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