Newspaper circulation is down 6.69 per cent across the board, according to the latest results released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The figures reveal rapidly changing consumer taste, with print hit hard. Of the two big publishers Fairfax Media fared the worst with huge declines; Sunday title the Sun-Herald recorded a loss of 18.7 per cent in what is believed to be the biggest ever year-on-year circulation decline.

The Age (Mon-Fri) was down 14.01 per cent year on year, Saturday’s Age 13.16 per cent, The Sydney Morning Herald 14.75 per cent, Saturday’s Herald 14.74 per cent, The Canberra Times 7.81 per cent and Saturday’s Canberra Times 8.41 per cent.

The Australian Financial Review fared a bit better, but was still down at rates of 3.67 per cent on weekdays and 5.04 per cent on the weekend.

News Limited titles also were down at rates of 1.36 per cent at The Daily Telegraph, 1.17 per cent at Saturday’s Telegraph, 5.13 per at the Herald Sun, 6.38 per cent at Saturday’s Herald Sun, 0.61 per cent at The Advertiser, 2.81 per cent at Saturday’s Advertiser, 5.04 per cent at NT News, 3.62 per cent at Saturday’s NT News,7.52 per cent at the Mercury, 5.77 per cent at Saturday’s Mercury, 4.79 per cent at The Courier-Mail, and 8.57 per cent at Saturday’s Courier-Mail.

National title The Australian was down 0.72 on weekdays and 2.65 per cent at the Weekend Australian.

The only major masthead to increase circulation was Seven West Media’s weekday The West Australian which is up by 0.2 per cent since last year.

Roy Morgan figures for newspaper readership also released last week highlighted similar declines.

At Fairfax, readership of The Australian Financial Review was down year-on-year 11.3 per cent Monday to Friday and 2 per cent at the weekend. The Sydney Morning Herald was down 13.9 per cent during the week and 8.7 per cent on Saturday, 13.6 per cent at weekday The Age, and 13.7 per cent at Saturday Age.

The Canberra Times neither lost nor gained readership on weekdays, although it lost 8.7 per cent of readership on Saturday.

Falls in readership at News Limited mastheads were higher than those recorded in circulation. The Australian was down 3.5 per cent, Weekend Australian down 6.1 per cent, Daily Telegraph 11.3 per cent, Saturday’s Telegraph 9.4 per cent, Herald Sun 12.4 per cent, Saturday’s Herald Sun 12.5 per cent, Courier Mail down 9.8 per cent, Saturday’s Courier Mail down 8.9 per cent.

The Advertiser in Adelaide was one of only three mastheads to increase readership – by 5.1 per cent on weekdays – with a fall of 0.2 per cent on Saturdays. Sister-paper The Sunday Mail had a 2 per cent increase. News Limited commuter paper mX was the only other masthead to increase readership by 0.6 per cent in Victoria.

The West Australian had readership falls of just 0.8 per cent on weekdays and 8.5 per cent at the Weekend West.