Decline in Circulation
As readers and advertisers moved from the city to the suburbs, The Bulletin attempted to follow. It introduced regional editions for four suburban counties and leased a plant in southern New Jersey to print a state edition. Reporters attended school and county meetings, but their efforts could not match the combined resources of the smaller suburban dailies.
The Bulletin also faced difficulties that plagued all big-city evening newspapers: Late afternoon traffic made distribution more costly than for morning papers. Also, The Bulletin faced greater competition from television evening newscasts.
The Bulletin's biggest problem, however, may have been the morning Philadelphia Inquirer. The Inquirer was on the verge of extinction until Eugene L. Roberts Jr. became executive editor in 1972. Under Roberts, The Inquirer won six consecutive Pulitzer Prizes and gained national reputation for quality journalism. The Inquirer grabbed the circulation lead in 1980. By 1982, The Inquirer’s was receiving 60 percent of the city’s newspaper advertising revenue compared to The Bulletin's 24 percent share. The Bulletin launched a morning edition in 1978, but by then the momentum had shifted decisively.
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