The Vineyard Gazette’s total paid circulation has increased for the second year in a row, bucking the trend that has seen newspapers around the country lose circulation.

Total average paid circulation for the Gazette this year was 8,882. A circulation statement is published on Page Six-A in today’s edition; the statement is required by the United States Postal Service for all paid circulation newspapers. The statement includes average paid circulation for subscriptions and vendor sales both in and out of county. Sold on the newsstand and through mail subscriptions, the Gazette is circulated throughout the United States and in several foreign countries.

Total average paid circulation in the Gazette last year was 8,872, up over the previous year’s number of 8,812. And while the increases may be small, they represent a trend of steady and stable circulation, said Gazette general manager Joe Pitt this week. “Up is up, and very few newspapers are able to say they are up,” he said.

The circulation statement also reports the number of copies of the newspaper that were not distributed, which is a way to look at how efficient a newspaper is with vendor sales and use of newsprint. The average number of copies not distributed per edition for the year was 617, and in August when the Gazette circulated 12,035 copies of the paper one week, the number was zero. “That means every copy of the paper that week was sold; even the papers that were returned were later resold,” Mr. Pitt said.

Owned by the Reston family, the Gazette publishes once a week in the off-season and twice a week from early June to September. A black and white seven-column broadsheet, the newspaper has published continuously for 163 years and is printed at the Gazette office in Edgartown.

The Martha’s Vineyard Times, a free circulation weekly tabloid that is published in Vineyard Haven and printed on the mainland, is not required to publish its circulation numbers, although the newspaper frequently touts its circulation as higher than the Gazette.

But Mr. Pitt said the comparison is apples and oranges. “Free distribution and paid circulation — they are two different things,” he said.