The Sunday newspaper takes the most care and feeding of any during the week because of its size, circulation and expanded sections, features and advertising.

But editors across the country have long been concerned about circulation declines in the Sunday edition because on that day of the week, readers should have more free time with their newspaper and seek out its value. However, Sunday circulation nationwide declined 7.5 percent from last year and many newspapers suffered double-digit percentage losses, a trend that has continued for several years now.

Subscribers or single-copy buyers select the Sunday paper for a variety of reasons, and recently we did a quick survey of a November Sunday newspaper to find out whether they liked the edition and why they bought it.

Nine out of 10 surveyed said they read the Nov. 8 newspaper, which contained three exclusive stories including the Kaloko Dam settlement amount, a plan by the state to tax cash-only businesses and questions about a respected probation program.

Six out of 10 thought this edition contained new information, important content, was interesting and thorough. Nearly that many thought the Sunday edition was well written, easy to understand and came away with a good overall impression of the paper.

Those were all good numbers but we drilled down to figure out exactly why those readers bought that particular Advertiser and asked which three sections they reached for first.

As you might expect, of the 179 responses, 139 said they chose the front section as one of their top three, followed by 66 who selected the sports section and 58 who grabbed the Hawai'i section. But 54 said they picked up the paper for the ads or inserts as one of their top three and 23 more specifically mentioned the Longs insert by name. The next most popular sections were Island Life (49), Travel (22), Dining Out (21), the comics (19), Focus (18) and Business (11).

A few picked USA Weekend, the classified section, Hawaii Renovation, the Office Depot flier, the Don Quijote insert, the Target booklet and Hawaii's Homes.

The Sunday edition, or any other day of the week, is a tricky thing to change without incurring the wrath of readers and as proof, I'm still taking the occasional call about the loss of TV Week. But it will be the edition that we spend more time scrutinizing as we ask for opinions of what needs strengthened or eliminated.

Please send me your thoughts about the Sunday paper at mplatte@honoluluadvertiser.com or call me at the number below.

Mark Platte is senior vice president and editor of The Advertiser. Reach him at 525-8080. Or follow his Twitter updates at www.twitter.com/markplatte.