Can you share some benchmarking metrics?

What is the circulation operating cost by percentage for newspapers size 20,000-25,000 in the mid-southern region? Is it 15% or higher? Or is it lower?

Posted by Glen

Here is some data from the new Publisher Benchmarks website launched by Mather Economics and the Inland Press Association that might help. 

There are a couple of ways of looking at that question.  I hope this helps!

A couple of different metrics for newspapers 0-25K circulation:

  • Circulation Expense as a % of Circulation Revenue – 16.0 percent
  • Circulation Expense as a % of Total Newspaper Expense – 18.3 percent

The concept of the new Publisher Benchmarks website is to provide high-level overviews of newspapers' key revenue, expense and profit metrics and then allow the user to dive deeper as they see opportunity or risk in the comparative data.

With data from Publisher Benchmarks, this powerful decision-making tool includes:

  • Metrics updated quarterly and available 24/7, 365 days a year.
  • A highly interactive and attractive dashboard.
  • Easily customizable dashboard to compare your unique competitive data set-by industry average, top performers, circulation, region, operational similarities and more.
  • In-depth insights into the evolving world of digital media revenues and expenses.
  • New insights into labor efficiency and effectiveness.
  • Enterprise-wide permission capabilities, allow you to control how data is shared within your organization.
  • Flexible data collection requirements.

For more information, contact Inland Financial Studies Manager Tim Mather at (847) 795-0380 or tmather@inlandpress.org.

Bob Terzotis is vice president of Mather Economics.  He can be reached at (337) 456-8353 or bob@mathereconomics.com.

benchmarking, Mather Economics, Terzotis, Inland