WSJ ranks #1 in readership stability, growth

Editor's Note: The U.S. daily newspaper power rankings will appear the last Friday of each month. Newspapers are ranked according to their composite score in parenthesis.

May Power Rankings -- Top 10 Daily U.S. Newspapers

1. The Wall Street Journal (3.06)
2. The New York Times (1.63)
3. USA Today (1.46)
4. The Star-Ledger (1.19)
5. The Washington Post (1.16)
6. New York Daily News (1.15)
7. Los Angeles Times (1.02)
8. Detroit Free Press (0.87)
9. The Boston Globe (0.81)
10. Chicago Tribune (0.71)

Scooping the News' monthly power rankings for U.S. daily newspapers provide a composite score that takes into account a newspaper's total print and online circulation figures and that newspaper's growth or lack of growth in both areas. A newspaper's composite score reflects both stability in terms of readership base and whether there is growth or a decline in that readership base.

Newspapers are then ranked according to their composite score. The higher the composite score, the higher the newspaper's power ranking. If one newspaper is ranked above another one, the one ranked higher possesses more stable readership and better growth patterns. In essence, the monthly Scooping the News power rankings reflect which U.S. daily newspapers are performing the best in attracting and keeping both print and online readers.

Print circulation figures come from the Audit Bureau of Circulations and online readership figures are reported by Nielsen Online. Scooping the News' formula for calculating a newspaper's composite score is (online readers in millions multiplied by .1) + (percent change in online readers from one year ago divided by 100) + (print readers in millions multiplied by .1) + (percent change in print readers from one year ago divided by 100).