The newspaper business, once a lush contributor to Tribune Co. profits, is now on its sell list, following the sale of the corporate jet a few weeks back.

One only has to look at the latest newspaper circulation data, released yesterday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, to understand why.

America's newspaper circulation woes are worsening, with many showing record losses over the past six months. And the biggest losses by far are at the nation's largest papers, led by the Tribune-owned Los Angeles Times, which fell a record 8 percent for the period ended Sept. 30, to 775,766.

The nation's dailies averaged a decline of 2.8 percent over the period, up from 2.5 percent reported in May for the prior six-month period. That's alarming enough, coming after years in which papers saw six-month declines in the 1 percent range.

But the big papers took the brunt of the hit. Of the top 20, only two, the New York Post and the New York Daily News, posted circulation gains, with the Post up 5.3 percent, to 704,011, finally overtaking the News, which was up 1 percent, to 693,382.

Besides Los Angeles, other big-paper declines include The New York Times, down 3.5 percent, to 1,086,798, Newsday, off 4.9 percent, to 413,579, the Boston Globe, off 6.7 percent, to 386,415, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, off 7.5 percent, to 330,622.

Some of the slide may be attributed to papers trimming circulation in their outer distribution regions to save on costs. But the bulk of it surely is the continuing migration of readers to the internet and other media choices.

These declines will predictably lead to declines in advertising. With fewer readers, the papers will become that much less attractive to advertisers seeking to reach large audiences, and other media will become that much more attractive.

The sharper 2.8 percent circulation decline is consistent with a number of forecasts of accelerating flight of daily newspaper readers, and it comes at a time when papers across the country are experimenting with every imaginable way to stem that flight, with much of it taking place on papers' internet sites. But whether any of this works is still very unclear, and meanwhile layoffs of employees, especially editorial staffers, continue apace.

The one bright note in the ABC data is the gains at the New York Post and Daily News, the fruit of an otherwise bitter circulation battle going on for years.

The Post's gains push it to fifth place among the nation's largest papers, and ahead of not just the News but the The Washington Post in daily circulation.

Staffers are delighted.

"We've been looking forward to this day for a while," Keith Kelly tells Media Life. Kelly covers media for the Post and once worked at the News.

Kelly attributes the circulation spike to a sustained effort to upgrade the Post's editorial. As of late yesterday afternoon, Kelly reports the champagne had not yet begun to flow in the newsroom, but he quipped, "I'm sure Des O'Brien will be putting a few extra bartenders tonight at Langan's," referring to a favorite Post watering hole.
 
Among the 21 papers with circulations between 250,000 and 500,000, the average decline was 4.1 percent.

For the entire 770 newspapers tracked by ABC, total circulation fell to 43,741,174 from 44,996,002, or 2.8 percent, as compared to the same six-month period a year earlier.

Sunday circulation numbers were even worse. The average circulation for the 619 newspapers reporting for comparable periods was down 3.4 percent, or 47,564,150 from 49,240,886, over the same period a year ago.
 
Tribune-owned newspapers were among the biggest losers. The 11 papers include, besides the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Newsday, Baltimore Sun, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel and Hartford Courant.

The Baltimore Sun declined by 4.4 percent, to 236,172 daily, and Sundays fell from 418,670 to 380,701, a 9 percent drop. The Hartford Courant's daily circulation dropped 3.9, to 179,066, while Sunday was off by 1.5 percent, to 264,539. The Chicago Tribune showed only slight declines with daily numbers dropping 1.7 percent, to 576,132, and Sunday falling 1.3 percent to 937,907.
 
Other heavy losses were reported at the Miami Herald, where daily circulation dropped 8.8 percent and Sunday fell 9.1 percent.
 
"The larger newspapers did post large declines. This was particularly true on Sunday, but while one may at first conclude this is a difference in consumer preferences, for example, readers choosing the web over print, I believe the numbers we are seeing are based on new marketing strategies," said John Murray, vice president of circulation for the Newspaper Association of America.

He says larger papers are now hunkering down and focusing on their highest readership areas that are most relevant to advertisers rather than continuing to spread their coverage far and wide and thin.

He predicts that the strategy will translate into more stable circulation numbers by the next reporting period.

"I would say this is a realignment in what's important, and what is important is holding onto sales and even growing those that have the highest readership value and provide the greatest value to advertisers."