NEW YORK — USA Today widened its lead as the nation's biggest circulation newspaper Monday in the first report using new rules counting copies sold through hotels, airlines and other third parties.
The new rules also let publishers count as paid circulation any copies sold for at least 25 percent of the basic price. Previously, only copies sold at least half the basic price were counted.
The biannual report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, an industry group based in Schaumburg, Ill., covered the six months ended Sept. 30.
The 2001 period was not exactly comparable to the same period a year ago because of the rule changes, but the ABC approximated the difference. It provided 2000 figures combining previously reported numbers and bulk sales, which are now included in the totals. The year-ago figures do not take into account other rule changes such as counting copies sold for as little as 25 percent of the basic price, or new guidelines governing the sales of copies to hotel guests.
Under the new rules, USA Today remained No. 1 in the country, with 2,241,677 average daily circulation. That was down 0.6 percent from a year ago.
The most recent report showed that USA Today had 994,077 copies sold to readers through third parties such as hotels, airlines and schools. That category, now called "other paid" circulation, was formerly classified as bulk sales and not included in circulation totals. Copies sold to individual buyers came to 1,247,600.
The new rules gave USA Today a big boost in total circulation by allowing copies sold through third parties to be counted in the totals. Under the old rules, USA Today edged out The Wall Street Journal by a lead of 14,737 copies a year ago, but under the new rules that lead widened to 461,072 in the most recent period.
All but six of the top 20 newspapers reported gains in circulation, compared to a year ago. While the events of Sept. 11 likely played into some circulation gains, the effect was averaged out over the six months.
The Wall Street Journal kept its No. 2 spot with a gain of 1.0 percent to 1,780,605, and The New York Times rose 1.1 percent to 1,109,371.
The Los Angeles Times, which implemented a single-copy price increase in March from 25 cents to 50 cents and eliminated some discounting practices, had a 4.9 percent decline to 972,957. The Washington Post declined 0.7 percent to 759,864.
The New York Post, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., had a 22 percent jump in circulation to 533,860 after it cut its cover price in half to 25 cents. Its crosstown rival, the Daily News, rose 4.6 percent to 734,473
The Newspaper Association of America, in its own analysis of the ABC figures, said total daily circulation for the 757 papers reporting for the period came to 47,861,622. The NAA did not provide a comparable figure for the same period a year ago, saying that the new rule definitions made the comparison difficult.