The decline in newspapers' paid circulation continues to plummet; statistics released this week by the Audit Bureau of Circulations shows that the largest newspapers in the industry continued to lose readers.

Only USA Today, the biggest weekday paper in the U.S., and The Wall Street Journal, holding the No. 2 slot, reported increases--and each grew only 0.01 percent.

The New York Times and the remainder of the top 25 weekday papers all sank. Paid weekday circulation fell 3.6 percent at The Times, 5.2 percent at the Los Angeles Times, 7.2 percent at the Daily News in New York, 6.3 percent at the New York Post, 1.9 percent at the Washington Post, 7.8 percent at the Chicago Tribune and 11.7 percent at the Houston Chronicle.

Readers aren't the only ones leaving newspapers in droves. Advertisers are too, taking their ad dollars online, or turning to good old Craigslist.

How much time are you spending trying to chase down newspaper reporters and editors at big papers like these, versus focusing your efforts in the social networking communities like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter where many former newspaper readers can be found? Reporters and editors at those big papers, by the way, often search for expert sources at these three sites. If you aren't there, you lose.

Three teleseminars I conducted the past few months provide everything you need to get started right now learning the ins and outs of these sites--and knowing how to promote the right way.

Most of you are already on LinkedIn, but how many of you know how to use it to promote? Let Scott Allen show you how. He was my guest expert during a teleseminar series on "How to Use LinkedIn to Promote Anything--Ethically & Powerfully." It's available as electronic transcripts and your choice of CDs or MP3s.

Read more about how to persuade your LinkedIn connections to help you promote whatever you're selling at http://tinyurl.com/5zvzyd

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity. Subscribe at www.publicityhound.com and receive by email the handy list "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."