The Journal Sentinel, in an understandably un-bylined puff piece, boasted Sunday that it still has the highest readership ratio — aka “market penetration” — among the 50 largest newspaper markets.

Among the things not mentioned: the actual circulation figures of the papers in the top 50 markets (the JS is not in first place) or the change over the years in readership figures. Is the JS just bleeding to death slower than other papers are?

The paper’s second quarter financial reports, released in July, were not good. Revenue continues to slide – it was down $2 million, or $4.1%, as advertising continued its decline. Classified ad revenue was down 9.5% “largely due to decreases in the real estate, automotive and other advertising categories,” Journal Communications reported. Retail advertsing was down 5.6%.

Online advertising was up $300,000, but the real boost in the bottom line came from cutting costs, not by any big jump in advertising bucks:

Daily newspaper operating expenses decreased 8.3%, primarily due to the reduction in employee related costs, other cost reduction initiatives and reduced expenses related to revenue declines partially offset by a $0.2 million increase in newsprint and paper expense.