You can't fool all of the people...

By Rick Ballard with M. Lopez

The American people show common sense when they once again "just say no" to the slanted coverage "on offer" by the national press.

From Editor & Publisher:

The Audit Bureau of Circulations released circulation numbers for more than 700 daily newspapers this morning for the six-month period ending September 2007.

Of the top 25 papers in daily circulation (see chart, separate story), only four showed gains.

According to an analysis of ABC figures, for 538 daily U.S. newspapers, circulation declined 2.5% to 40,689,617. For 609 papers that filed on Sunday, overall circulation dropped 3.5% to 46,771,486. The percentages are based on comparisons from the same period a year ago and represent the majority of the paper's reporting into ABC -- less than half in the country.

For The New York Times, daily circulation fell 4.51% to 1,037,828 and Sunday plunged 7.59% to 1,500,394, at least partly due to a price increase.

Morgan Stanley's "tossing in the towel" on the New York Times seems rather prescient at the moment. When the biggest buzz about the comapny concerns its "breakup value" you have to wonder about the fiduciary responsibility being exercised by the T. Rowe Price people who continue to prop up the stock through mutual fund holdings.

How big a loss are they willing to hand their investors, given that the Sulzberger family appears intent on riding the company right into the ground?