Fuel for my argument about design investment

Take a look at the circulation results for the top 25 U.S. newspapers.

Yeowtch!

Now think about how many of them have installed new designs in the past three years, for whatever reason.

Where's the payback?

The Los Angeles and St. Pete redesigns I wrote about last week happened too recently to make a difference in this round of circulation reports. But I'll be surprised if they matter in the next round.

I surely wish newspapers would consider investing all that design time, creative energy and money in the parts of their businesses that are growing. Yes, I mean the online parts.

(It's worth noting that the New York Post, perhaps the only real winner in the circulation list, still looks the same in print as it has for years. "If it ain't broke," natch. But the Web site got a redesign this year.)

Update 5 p.m. ET 11/3/06: NewsDesigner posts circulation trends for several papers before and after recent redesign projects. Fascinating.