There might be some light at the end of the tunnel for newspapers: while print sales declines at Fairfax and News Limited have continued unabated, combined print and digital sales saw a slight boost in the latest circulation figures.
In the three months to December 2012, the entire newspaper market fell 8.1%, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which measure the average per-issue paid print sales.
December 2012 ABC print circulation figures.
However, the Audit Bureau's new 'masthead' figures – which combine print sales, digital sales and package subscription sales – saw a quarter-on-quarter increase of around 0.2% from the September quarter to the December quarter. Although that is only for the few metro and national papers that are currently providing digital sales data. Comparative year-on-year figures are not yet available.
The Newspaper Works chief executive Tony Hale said: “There is a clear trend emerging that shows Australians are embracing digital publishing with growing enthusiasm.
“The fact is, the growth of digital subscriptions is now starting to offset the decline in print circulations, as illustrated by the increase in total sales of mastheads which are reporting their digital figures.
“It is still early days for paid digital sales, and in coming months, we will see the rollout of digital subscriptions across more and more mastheads, supported with enthusiastic marketing by the publishers.
“Given that the newspaper industry has only just begun reporting digital sales, these latest ABC numbers are very encouraging.”
The Australian Monday to Friday edition saw its masthead figure jump from 154,679 in the September quarter to 158,325 in the December quarter, while the Saturday edition of The Sydney Morning Herald increased from 283,062 to 292,989. Not all papers increased their masthead figure, with The Sun-Herald falling from 342,325 to 334,063.
Most newspapers still only report print sales figures. Only when digital reporting becomes compulsory in the September 2013 period will the market see if combined print and digital numbers indicate comparative growth for the industry as a whole.
Meanwhile, News Limited trounced Fairfax in the December 2012 print circulation battle in line with the two companies' different circulation strategies. In keeping with the trend of recent circulation results, Fairfax saw a 14.8% decline overall in print sales, while News Limited dropped 5.3%.
The difference in print figures reflects the two radically different print circulation strategies which News Limited and Fairfax have adopted. Fairfax has been informing the market for some time that it has been systematically decreasing its unprofitable print circulation in order to invest in digital. News Limited has been putting more faith in its print product, while still investing in digital.
Bucking this trend, Fairfax's national titles performed much better than its competitor. Fairfax's Australian Financial Review fell 7.7% for its weekday title and 3.3% for its Saturday edition, while News Limited's The Australian declined 8.4% in its weekday edition and 9.6% in its Saturday edition.
But in New South Wales and Victoria, News Limited was the clear victor in print circulation. In NSW, the weekday edition of News Limited's Daily Telegraph fell 2%, compared to the weekday edition of the Sydney Morning Herald which declined 14.5%. The largest decline across all metro newspapers was seen by Fairfax's Sun-Herald, falling 22.9%.
In Victoria, Fairfax's The Age dropped 14.5% in its weekday edition, while News Limited's Herald Sun fell 4.7%. Similar differences were seen in the Saturday and Sunday editions.
The only newspaper to report an increase was West Australian Newspapers The West Australian Saturday edition, which increased 1.3%.
Newspaper inserted magazines also saw major declines, dropping 8.1% overall. The largest declines were seen by Fairfax's Sunday Life and Age (Melbourne) Magazine.
The declines across the board in print revenue can be seen largely in the context of consumers' mass migration into the digital space. The print numbers do not take into account the digital sales for newspapers.
Presently, the major metro newspapers to voluntarily provide the Audit Bureau with digital figures are The Australian, The Weekend Australian, The Sun-Herald, The Sunday Age, The Age (Saturday), The Age (weekdays), The Sydney Morning Herald (Saturday) and The Sydney Morning Herald (weekdays).
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