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New ABC regional figures conceal facts

A supposed attempt by the Audit Bureau of Circulations council to make the regional newspaper circulation figures more transparent has, in fact, made them altogether less easy to analyse. Perhaps that's what owners wanted.

The net effect of the change means that it is now impossible, at a glance, to say how the regional dailies as a whole are performing because the statistics have been presented either county by county, with dailies and weeklies lumped in together, or owner by owner. Again, that makes for opacity when trying to analyse each sector.

It also means, of course, that making comparisons with the previous six months and the same six months a year ago will be time-consuming. Again, perhaps owners and managers want to conceal the undoubted decline of circulations, but it's a pretty ham-fisted way of going about it.

Why has ABC done it? I made that call 20 minutes ago and the operations functionary felt unable to comment beyond saying it was a council decision. She has promised that a senior executive will call back to explain why the change has been made. I'm waiting.

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