Circulation among daily newspapers is declining. All right, that’s not really news but when the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported its lastest statistics last week, the silver lining in Tucson was that the morning Arizona Daily Star’s circulation decline wasn’t as bad as the national average, falling 2.5 percent from a year ago. The national decline averaged 3.6 percent.

But the Gannett-owned afternoon Tucson Citizen did its part for the statistics, dropping 8.6 percent to 23,767 per weekday. Circulation for the Star, owned by Lee Enterprises, now averages 113,737 per weekday. Circulation for the Sunday Star, which also goes to Citizen subscribers, averaged 164,033, down 2.9 percent.

These numbers are averages over the six months ending in March. They’re up over October but that is usually the case, thanks to higher numbers of residents and snowbirds in winter months.

Among the nation’s 25 largest newspapers, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal were the only two to show increases in circulation for their print editions. Gannett-owned USA Today remains the nation’s largest circulated daily newspaper, up 0.3 percent to 2.28 million. No. 2, the Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corp., was up 0.4 percent to 2.07 million. The New York Times, No. 3, was down 3.9 percent to 1.08 million.

The nation’s 10th largest daily newspaper is the Arizona Republic in Phoenix, where average circulation was down 4.7 percent to 413,332.

Katfish gets the hook

Another victim of budget cuts at Journal Broadcasting: Katfish Kris Kelly was shown the door after his April 25 morning show on Mega Oldies KGMG 106.3-FM/104.9-FM. Taking his place is Tony B, a.k.a. Tony Brueski, who really gets around. About three hours after he finishes up his shift on Mega Oldies, he’s on the air playing country music on a Journal-owned station in Wichita, Kansas. What’s he do in between? Presumably he works in a little time at his radio commercial production business in Michigan.

It’s called voice tracking and you might be surprised at how often the voice you hear on the radio isn’t really there, and not live. This one is a little different, though; it’s not often a station turns over the potentially lucrative morning drive slot to an out-of-towner unless it’s a really big-name national show.

Kelly had been at Mega Oldies for four years.

Belo reports financials

Following up on last week’s item about the tough sledding media companies are facing, Belo Corp. reported its financials last week for the first three months of the year. Although it reported a $15.4 million loss, that included $21.4 million in accounting charges related to spinning off its newspapers into a separate company in February. Otherwise, it said, the TV stations and cable companies that now make up Belo Corp. would have shown a first-quarter profit of $10.5 million.

In Tucson Belo owns Fox affiliate KMSB 11 and KTTU 18.

Belo said its broadcasting-cable revenues were down 2 percent to $174.8 mllion during the first three months of the year due mainly to declines in automobile advertising, which it said accounts for about 25 percent of its advertising revenue.

Separately, the newspaper division, A.H. Belo Corp., reported a first-quarter loss of $8.7 million on $160.2 million in revenue.

Clear Channel buyout saga

Two private equity firms and Clear Channel Communications gained some ground last week on six banks who are trying to renege on financing a $19.5 billion deal to take the radio station company private. A New York state judge refused to go along with the banks’ request to postpone a June 2 trial in San Antonio for seven months.

The banks say changes in the financial markets as a result of the economy since they first agreed to the deal will cause them to lose $2.7 billion.

Not only did the banks fail on the postponement effort, a trial is due to get underway today (May 5) in New York where the private equity firms, Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, are suing them for $26 billion for failing to fund the deal. The Texas lawsuit was filed by Clear Channel, which is headquartered in San Antonio.

Clear Channel is Tucson’s largest radio operator with seven stations: KRQ 93.7-FM, KNST 790-AM, Hot 98.3 KOHT 98.3-FM, The Mountain KWMT 92.9-FM, Cool KWFM 1450-AM, La Preciosa KTZR 97.1-FM and Tejano KXEW 1600-AM. Clear Channel also owns Tucson’s only major outdoor billboard company.

Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237. Inside Tucson Media appears weekly.