The Star-Advertiser has moved up to No. 25 in circulation among daily newspapers in the U.S., according to the latest report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The ABC chart shows the top 25 papers, and this marked the Star-Advertiser’s first appearance on that list.

Print and digital subscriptions to the paper and its so-called branded editions, including MidWeek on Oahu and Kauai and Street Pulse, grew 26.3 percent year over year, bucking a long industry trend.

ABC reported that the Star-Advertiser’s average daily circulation of 224,973 includes 125,722 print copies, 29,932 digital editions and 69,319 branded editions, while Sunday circulation of 170,298 includes 140,517 print copies and 29,781 digital editions.

"ABC takes the total distribution of our branded editions and divides by 5 for an average daily circulation, thus the 69,319 for those editions," said Dave Kennedy, senior vice president/marketing for Star-Advertiser publisher Oahu Publications Inc.

Since the Star-Advertiser began its online premium content subscriptions in August 2011, "we have increased our Star-Advertiser daily print circulation by more than 6 percent, and our Sunday print circulation is up more than 4 percent," Kennedy said.

The circulation data reflect the period from April through Sept. 30. ABC reports newspaper circulation figures twice a year.

Cumulatively, ABC found that average weekday circulation for 613 daily papers shrank 0.2 percent, while 528 Sunday papers’ circulation grew 0.6 percent.

The ABC’s so-called FAS-FAX report is akin to the Nielsen ratings for television and Arbitron ratings for radio, in that the data are used, among other things, to help set advertising rates and support advertising sales.

ABC said this was the first FAS-FAX to report total consumer accounts, representing unduplicated subscriber accounts. Neal Lulofs, executive vice president and general manager for ABC interactive, said it is important to understand how newspapers’ "various publishing plans" affect overall circulation, such as metered paywalls, mobile apps, bundled subscriptions and branded editions. Given that this is the first report to include all consumer accounts, "ABC cautions against" direct comparisons of the data in this report, he said in an online write-up.

The Wall Street Journal, the country’s largest newspaper since 2009, maintained its hold on the top spot, followed by USA Today, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Daily News.

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On the Net:

http://accessabc.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/the-top-u-s-newspapers-for-september-2012/