The subject of Stereophile's circulation arose on r.a.o. and r.a.t. today, the
context being how a mainly 2-channel audio magazine can survive in
today's complicated media market. Rusty Boudreaux had said (in message
) that he had "noticed the drop
on [Stereophile]'s gov't filing page for circulation," while Arny
Krueger had stated (in message )
that he thought "there is plenty of evidence that Stereophile's magazine
sales are shrinking at a rate that should and probably does greatly
concern [John] Atkinson."

However, it is fair to point out that Mr. Krueger offered _no_ such
"evidence," nor does he have any. Mr. Krueger also wrote that he'd
"heard that Atkinson admits it [ie, that "Stereophile's magazine
sales are shrinking"] privately." However, I don't know Mr. Krueger
personally, I have not had _any_ conversations with him, nor have I
discussed changes in Stereophile's circulation statistics with anyone
who knows Mr. Krueger. His statement that he has "heard that..." etc.
is thus at best a figment of Mr. Krueger's imagination and at worst
a deliberate dissemination of a falsehood to damage a magazine edited
by someone Mr. Krueger regards as a personal enemy.

I did promise Mr. Goudreaux that I would supply Stereophile's circulation
statistics. Here, then, are the paid circulation figures for Stereophile
during the past 10 years. These are the figures submitted each year by the
magazine's publisher with its second-class mailing statement to the Post
Office, and are the average of the 12 issues preceding the month of
filing (which is generally November):

1994: 71,040
1995: 79,332
1996: 85,808
1997: 87,219
1998: 83,921
1999: 85,224
2000: 91,384
2001: 84,987
2002: 82,932
2003: 81,668

Please note that there are many factors which contribute to a magazine's
paid circulation, and that to draw any general conclusion concerning any
specific factor will almost certainly be incorrect. For example, if you
wish, as Mr. Boudreaux did, to correlate the magzine's circulation with
the health of the high-end audio industry, our circulation in 2000, when
the industry was having a hard time, was higher than in 1996 and 1997
when the audio industry was at its peak. Regardless, I hope that this
puts the matter of Stereophile's purported circulation problems to rest.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile