The 5 most widely circulated newspapers in America

The latest, newly revised audit of newspaper circulation numbers show the steady decline over the past five years may be stabilizing a bit. It’s still bad news, with the numbers still dropping, but they are not falling nearly as fast.

The Wall Street Journal remains the No. 1 newspaper in the U.S., according to the latest figures released this week from the Audit Bureau of Circulation. Its daily circulation topped out at 2.1 million.

Rounding out the top five were USA Today, with 1,829,099; The New York Times, with 916,911; The Los Angeles Times, with 605,243; and The San Jose Mercury News, with 577,665. The Washington Post dropped out of the top five to No. 6.

The newspapers benefited from a substantial change in the way the audit bureau counts circulation. These looser guidelines allow newspapers to count paid and “verified” copies of the newspaper. The latter category includes third-party copies and those given to schools and newspaper employees.

Previously, copies had to actually be purchased to be counted.