Boston Herald newsstand sales have plummeted over 40% amid COVID-19
Total print circulation at the tabloid is down nearly 30%, though digital subscriptions have doubled.
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Newsstand sales for The Boston Herald are down 41% from last year, Boston Business Journal reported Tuesday.
That’s a big deal for the local tabloid, as newsstand sales make up around half of its print circulation, more than most newspapers. The Herald said in a filing that its total circulation — which includes mail subscriptions — is down 28% year over year.
It’s part of a long downward trend for the paper (and, of course, print journalism as a whole). Print circulation of the Herald has been cut by more than half in the last four years, from around 55,000 in March 2016 to less than 25,000 in September this year.
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the already shaky standing of many print publications, and the Herald is no exception. After all, if much of a paper’s circulation relies on single-copy purchases from convenience stores and coffee shops, then an empty city means bad business.
The Herald also increased its newsstand price from $2.50 to $3.50 this summer (50 cents more than the asking price for The New York Times and The Boston Globe), which may have also contributed to a loss in sales.
Digital subscriptions have been more promising for the tabloid, however. They’ve doubled to close to 10,000 over the last year.
The last few years have been particularly rough for the Herald. The city’s second-largest daily paper declared bankruptcy in 2017 and was bought out by Denver-based Digital First Media, which is known for gutting papers for parts. The paper’s office moved from Boston to Braintree in 2018, and the editorial staff is down to only 24 as of July, having also lost its editor-in-chief and managing editor in the last year.
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