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Two Hawaii newspapers managed to hold onto more paid circulation over the past year by increasing the number of papers distributed to hotel guests.

Circulation continued to slip at The Honolulu Advertiser, Hawaii's largest newspaper, but the paper held onto more paid readership than the national average.

The Advertiser reported a 0.2 percent decrease in average paid circulation of its Monday-Friday editions, falling from 140,647 to 140,331 in the six months ending March 30, 2008.

That is compared to the same to the six months ending March 31, 2007, according to a report this week by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The Advertiser's Sunday circulation declined 3.7 percent from 156,003 to 150,276 in the most recent period.

Nationally, weekday newspaper circulation declined 3.5 percent and Sunday circulation fell 4.5 percent.

The Advertiser and The Maui News, which saw its weekday circulation grow significantly, may have benefited from the departure of USA Today from daily distribution in Hawaii at the end of 2007. Newspapers typically offer deeply discounted newspapers to hotels for distribution to guests and USA Today was a favorite.

Before stopping printing and distribution in Hawaii, USA Today was selling about 12,000 weekday papers in the Islands, including about 8,600 to hotels.

In the most recent audit, the Advertiser reported that its weekday distribution to hotels jumped 44 percent to 12,299 and its Sunday circulation climbed 18 percent to 6,665 over the same period a year ago.

At The Maui News, weekday circulation bucked the national trend and rose 5.8 percent, from 20,777 to 21,974. Sunday fell 0.5 percent from 25,343 to 25,209.

Nearly all of the weekday gain appears to come from hotel distribution. Sunday hotel circulation was up 11 percent to 2,895 and weekday circulation rose by 961 copies a day — a 53 percent increase — to 2,770.

The Garden Island on Kauai, the only other member of the audit bureau in Hawaii, had not had its circulation numbers posted as of Friday.

The state's other daily newspapers — the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, West Hawaii Today in Kona and the Hawaii Tribune Herald in Hilo — do not belong to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

A circulation statement by the Star-Bulletin in March 2007 and verified by the Grant Thornton accounting firm put its daily circulation at 64,073 and Sunday at 60,158.

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