While the overall circulation of the Mercury News declined by 9 percent in the most recent six-month period, the paper’s home delivery increased. Home delivery is the figure most important to advertisers, the Merc says. Daily home delivery grew from 191,140 to 191,920 during the week and from 205,870 to 206,107 on Sunday. About half of the daily paper’s decline in circulation came from a fall in single-copy sales, due in part to an increase in the price of the daily paper to 50 cents in October 2005. The figures were reported in a story published this morning about how newspaper circulation is decreasing but Web visits to newspaper sites is on the rise. [PPC, yesterday: Merc circ drops 9.4% daily, 9.7% Sunday