ANOTHER GRIM MILESTONE:

According to an analysis of ABC figures, for 538 daily U.S. newspapers, circulation declined 2.5% to 40,689,617. For 609 papers that filed on Sunday, overall circulation dropped 3.5% to 46,771,486. The percentages are based on comparisons from the same period a year ago and represent the majority of the paper’s reporting into ABC — less than half in the country.

For The New York Times, daily circulation fell 4.51% to 1,037,828 and Sunday plunged 7.59% to 1,500,394. . . . At the Star Tribune, daily dropped 6.5% to 335,443, and Sunday was down 4.3% to 570,443.

I blame George W. Bush.

UPDATE: Mickey Kaus: “New York Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal says that being top editor of the Times has made Bill Keller ‘crazier.’ … He also describes publisher Pinch Sulzberger as more involved in editorials than I’d thought . . . . That explains a lot!”