Still waiting for all the official reactions, but a few other notes about this morning's circulation reports:

♦ In a media release, the Pioneer Press says its weekday/Sunday uptick (up 248 and 249 copies, respectively), puts the paper "No. 1 for year-over-year Sunday growth and No. 4 for daily growth" among the nation's top 50. Yes, flat is truly the new up.

♦ The PiPress release also focuses on strength in its core counties (Ramsey, Washington, Dakota), with "daily print circulation" up 6,392 weekdays and 709 on Sundays. Those figures do not include e-Editions, digital replicas of the print layout, which the PiPress has also pushed — and sold — aggressively. 

♦ Contextualizing the Strib's 8 percent Sunday drop and 5 percent weekday decline:

Nationally, weekday circulation dropped 10 percent, means the Strib's slip was half the U.S. rate. Sunday circulation fell 7.5 percent, meaning the Strib's fall was worse than its peers. Sunday is the week's most profitable paper. Again, the Strib has deliberately cut lesser-value, higher-cost circulation, though they've definitely lost valued readership, too.

Among its Top 25 peers, the Strib's results placed it 15th of 24 on Sundays, but third of 22 weekdays, according to Editor & Publisher. (Three papers, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Denver Post and Seattle Post-Times did not have comparables; the last two had competitors go out of business this year.)

15 of the 24 papers had double-digit weekday declines. Alan Mutter, at the Reflections of a Newsosaur blog, notes overall U.S. daily newspaper readership is now below 1940 levels.

Will try to get more on how the Strib is faring in its core area later.

♦ The Fargo Forum was among the weekday circ gainers, up 0.4 percent to 50,131 copies. Editor & Publisher ranked the paper 10th nationally for gains. (Again, the PiPress figures include only the 50 biggest papers.)