The Decline of The Times: A Local New York City Note

From the New York Sun’s editorial (HT Large Bill) on last week’s primary results in New York City:

Three points to take away from Tuesday’s primary election: First, not even New York City Democrats listen to what New York Times editorials tell them to do. The Times endorsed three candidates in closely contested races: David Yassky in a Brooklyn congressional race; Ken Diamondstone in a race to represent a Brooklyn district in the state Senate; and Mark Green in the race for attorney general. All three candidates — Yassky, Diamondstone, and Green — lost. The New York Observer ran a 2,000-word article last year claiming that “It’s a given among the city’s political classes that an endorsement from The Times in a race for City Council, the State Legislature or a judgeship is tantamount to election in affluent, Times-reading neighborhoods.” Not anymore.

Dirty little secret: The Times is in third place in New York City readership, behind the Post and the Daily News. From Biz Weak last year (link may requires subscription):

Today, nearly 50% of all subscribers to the weekday Times live somewhere other than Gotham.

This BizzyBlog post from May shows the circulation numbers for the three New York dailies as follows:

3. The New York Times, 1,142,464, up 0.5 percent
6. New York Daily News, 708,477, down 3.7 percent
7. New York Post, 673,379, down 0.7 percent

With nearly half of its subscribers from elsewhere, this would means that the Times local circulation is, at best, roughly 600,000. That would place The Times firmly in third.