Star Tribune daily circulation falls from 15th to 17th in U.S.

​The latest Audit Bureau of Circulation numbers are out and at first blush it doesn't look good for the Strib.

The Minneapolis paper fell from 15th to the 17th biggest newspaper nationwide when ranked by daily circulation.

The last ABC audit came out in October. So how did our local newspaper of record tumble two spots in just six months?

UPDATE: Pioneer Press posts modest circulation gains

First, let's look at the Star Tribune in isolation.

Daily Circulation at the Strib:

October: 297,478
Today: 296,605

The Strib lost about 900 daily readers--practically a statistical blip. So why did it fall in the national rankings?

It got leap-frogged by faster-growing papers elsewhere.

The Chicago Sun-Times surged ahead of the Strib (and many other papers), going from 19th to 10th (in part due to new ABC rules regarding "branded editions"). The Dallas Morning News also jumped over the Star Tribune, going from 16th to 11th.

Of course, it might also have to do with the way the ABC changed it's reporting system, so it's not totally an apples to apples comparison.

​In Sunday circulation, the Star Tribune maintained its ranking as the 10th largest newspaper in the country, with 516,134. Last reporting period counted 504,616 readers, itself a growth of more than 5% over the last six-month reporting period.

So Sunday sales continue to surge even as daily circulation slips slightly. Overall, not a terribly bad place to be if you're dead tree media.

UPDATE: Across the river at the Pioneer Press, the newsroom is crowing about adding 495 daily readers (an increase of 0.2%) and 580 on Sunday (also +0.2%)