TOP 20 PAPER STATS Mon May 02 2005 21:08:46 ET Average daily circulation of the nation's 20 biggest newspapers for the six months ended March 31, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period. 1. USA Today, 2,281,831, up 0.05 percent 2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,070,498, down 0.8 percent 3. The New York Times, 1,136,433, up 0.24 percent 4. Los Angeles Times, 907,997, down 6.5 percent 5. The Washington Post, 751,871, down 2.7 percent 6. New York Daily News, 735,536, down 1.5 percent 7. New York Post, 678,086, up 0.01 percent 8. Chicago Tribune, 573,744, down 6.6 percent 9. Houston Chronicle, 527,744, down 3.9 percent 10. San Francisco Chronicle, 468,739, down 6.1 percent 11. The Arizona Republic, 452,016, down 3.2 percent 12. The Boston Globe, 434,330, down 3.9 percent 13. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 394,767, down 1.6 percent 14. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 391,373, down 2.4 percent 15. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 378,316, up 0.33 percent 16. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 364,974, down 3.0 percent 17. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 348,416, down 5.2 percent 18. Detroit Free Press, 347,447, down 2.0 percent 19. St. Petersburg Times (Florida), 337,515, down 3.2 percent 20. The Oregonian, Portland, 335,980, down 1.8 percent