BevLog

The difference is seasonal versus ongoing. According to the latest report for the six-month period ended Sept.30 from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), newspaper circulation was down 5% in the U.S. vs. a decline of 8.7% the previous year. "USA Today" has the highest print circulation but "The Wall Street Journal" is "the largest newspaper" counting paid online subscribers.

ABC's Virtual Press Room "Industry Scoop" posts articles about how the stats are reported showing different perspectives from "Ad Age" to "MediaPost."

Speaking of perspectives, the NYTimes' "MediaDecoder" blog takes a closer look at the stats and lists "the top 25 newspapers by weekday circulation." And print publishers like the "WBJ" continue redesigning their Web sites to lure readers back into "the fold."

Here's another example of the blazing speed and power of customers via social networking. On Monday, Oct. 4 Gap quietly put a new logo design on their Web site. Customers saw it and started posting "comments" via Gap's Facebook page. Two days later on Oct. 6 the ISO50 blog of Scott Hansen posted a contest online "for fun - not for Gap" for readers to enter a better design. (Today it has 312 designs posted.)

Later that same day Marka Hansen, Gap, North American president, wrote an explanation (defensive/change in plan) on "The Huffington Post" offering an invitation to "crowd source" a new logo. That PR "crisis management" effort failed. Gap's original logo was officially reinstated on Oct. 11.

It reminds me of what happened in January 2009 when PepsiCo changed the popular Tropicana package design ("Like drinking right out of the orange") that I worked on with Frank Murakami back in "the old days." It took two months compared to seven days for PepsiCo to admit defeat and withdraw.