For the NYT , they lost local circulation but their total number held near the same by adding in their national version printed around the country plus some fudge factor for their web site traffic included.

British special forces operating on the border between Afghanistan and Iran have uncovered fresh evidence that Tehran is actively backing insurgents fighting UK troops.

Documented proof that Iran is supplying the Taliban with devastating roadside bomb-making equipment has been passed by British officials to Tehran, prompting fears that the war in Afghanistan may escalate into a regional armed conflict.

Days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Britain would freeze the assets of Iran’s largest bank to discourage Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, Whitehall sources revealed that they had forwarded ‘documentation’ that the Iranian authorities were supplying enemy forces in Afghanistan.

‘We have given Tehran documentation of things that we are concerned about, but of course they have denied it,’ a Whitehall source said.

Nato spokesman James Appathurai echoed concerns that elements in Iran are providing support to insurgents fighting British troops. He said: ‘Weapons of Iranian origin have turned up in Afghanistan in significant numbers.’

The situation is so serious that the UK government is believed to have asked Russia and India to raise the issue with Tehran, and to emphasise its wider implications. Evidence found by UK special forces is understood to concern the supply of the same bomb-making equipment Iran provides to insurgents in Iraq, namely components for explosively formed projectiles, or EFPs.

What they don’t print is just as important as what they do print.

Ad revenues are directly related to circulation numbers. A newspaper’s advertising rates are set by their circulation. The higher the circulation, the higher the ad rates. NY Times has seen dramatic drops in circulation, particularly in NYC where they compete with the NY Post and the WSJ (both owned by Rupert Murdoch). The Post’s circulation is increasing. I am not sure about the WSJ.

NYT’s circulation inside NYC has gone down 33% since 1993. Overall circulation is down about 10% which means that an increasing share of the readers don’t live in the NYC market.

In 1993 the NYT saw 64 percent of its readers in the NYC market. That is now down to 47 percent. So if you have a store in NY that is having a sale, the NYT is a lot less effective vehicle for your ad to your potential customer base.

The New York Post, on the other hand is seeing its circulation increase. It is larger than the Washington Post and in 2006 it was the 5th largest paper in the US. And most of its readership is in the NYC market.

I’m an advertiser, I run a company with a $60,000 per month ad budget. Over the last five years, we have gradually gotten away from TV, radio, and now newspaper advertising. The telephone, with the proliferation now of caller ID, has ceased to be a tool, not only for prospecting, but for customer relationship maintenance also. We now rely on internet communication, specifically a newsletter sent monthly, occasional “e-post card” announcements, and personal visits.

Roughly half the citizens of this country lean left, this is no small market. The newspapers are simply giving them what they want, while ignoring those of us on the other side ideologically. I’m not sure that straddling the middle, something journalism is probably incapable of doing, would be any better as a business model for them than the niche they have obviously chosen.