The decline in Fairfax Media’s flagship metropolitan daily newspapers is a result of the company’s year-old strategy to eliminate uneconomic distribution footprints for those mastheads.

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation figures, The Age in Melbourne fell by 16.9 per cent on weekdays and 15.1 per cent on Saturdays, while the Sunday Age dropped 15.4 per cent. The average paid digital only sales were 14,920 for The Age and 26,091 for the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH).

The Sun-Herald declined by 21.3 per cent, while the SMH’s weekday edition fell by 15.1 per cent and its Saturday edition by 15.9 per cent.

The Australian Financial Review (AFR) posted a 6.5 per cent fall for its weekday edition, while its weekend edition circulation fell by 3.9 per cent. The AFR blames the decline in pint circulation on the tough market conditions and adoption of the AFR’s digital products.

AFR’s online audience is reported to be up 147 per cent to 265,000, its paid digital subscribers were up 8200 to 23,000, and its iPad app has had more than 55,000 downloads since launching in May.

The Australian newspaper’s weekday circulation fell by 4.6 per cent, while its weekend edition declined by 5.6 per cent, however it had an average of 27,796 digital only sales on weekdays, which represented 18 per cent of total paid sales.

Seven West Media’s The West Australian in Perth was once again the best performing metro daily, positing a 0.7 per cent circulation gain for weekdays despite its Saturday edition falling by 5.3 per cent.

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