Mainstream newspapers continue to bleed:

The Los Angeles Times reported that daily circulation fell 8% to 775,766. Sunday dropped 6% to 1,172,005

The San Francisco Chronicle was down. Daily dropped 5.3% to 373,805 and Sunday fell 7.3% to 432,957.

The New York Times lost 3.5% daily to 1,086,798 and 3.5% on Sunday to 1,623,697. Its sister publication, The Boston Globe, reported decreases in daily circulation, down 6.7% to 386,415 and Sunday, down 9.9% to 587,292.

The Washington Post lost daily circulation, which was down 3.3% to 656,297 while Sunday declined 2.6% to 930,619.

Circulation losses at The Wall Street Journal were average, with daily down 1.9% to 2,043,235. The paper’s Weekend Edition, however, saw its circulation fall 6.7% to 1,945,830.

Daily circulation at USA Today slipped 1.3% to 2,269,509.

The Chicago Tribune showed slight declines. Daily dropped 1.7% to 576,132 and Sunday decreased 1.3% to 937,907.

Losses at the Miami Herald were steep. Daily circulation fell 8.8% to 265,583 and Sunday fell 9.1% to 361,846.

And on and on.

Only one major metro newspaper bucked the trend–Rupert Murdoch’s NYPost:

The New York Post got a leg up in the city’s tab wars. Daily circulation at the paper overtook the Daily News and showed gains of 5% — perhaps the only major metro in the country to report such growth — to 704,011 copies.

The Post covers the story:

The New York Post today surpassed the Daily News and The Washington Post to become the 5th largest newspaper in America after bucking the national trend and chalking up a whopping 5.1 percent jump in circulation.

The Post’s average paid circulation was 704,011 for Monday to Friday in the six-month period ending Sept. 30, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported.

That’s an increase of 34,348 copies over the same period in 2005.

“This is a joyous occasion for the paper and its readers,” said Post editor-in-chief Col Allan. “The first question we ask every morning is what do our readers – our bosses – want to see in tomorrow’s paper. And then we get it for them – the best sports in town, great gossip and features, hard-hitting news, and opinion that shapes the debate.”

Hemorrhaging left-wing newspapers could learn a thing or two about gaining and keeping readers from the NYPost, don’t ya think?