It's still a billion-dollar industry, but Australian newspapers continued to reflect sliding circulation numbers in the third quarter of 2011, with all major media firm affected by the consistent declines, according to latest available industry data.

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, Australian dailies generate some $1.3 billion in weekly revenues, which roughly translate to an estimated 19 million copies purchased and perused by readers nationwide.

However, the numbers could not hide the reality that circulation has been gradually dropping since the advent of digital publication as readers slowly alter their reading habits that saw the conventional printed papers being sidelined by online publications that catered to millions who log in to get their dose of news for any given day.

AdNews.com.au has reported that covering the data gathered from New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, the number of newspaper hard copies printed and sold fell considerably, translating to paper losses for both media giants News Ltd and Fairfax.

Across Australia, The Australian by Fairfax suffered circulation drops of more than 2 percent for its weekday and weekend editions, with the Saturday and Sunday issues faring a bit better by accumulating 293,793 for the September quarter.

Over the same period, News Ltd's Sydney Morning Herald saw its overall circulation shrinking by 4.79 percent in the quarter, printing only more than 300,000 copies for the weekend issues and close to 190,000 copies for the regular weekdays, a steep fall of 7.9 percent.

Yet pitted against each other, Fairfax got the better of News Ltd as the latter's The Age posted circulation jumps of up to 0.94 percent for the Sunday edition to 228,826 copies while its weekday issues gained by 0.34 percent to 190,750 copies.

The overall printed newspaper situation, according to Newspaper Works chief executive Tony Hale was at best moderating for all national and regional publishers and the changing landscape in the industry, he added, was mostly prompted by economics and structural adjustments.

Hale noted that the current circulation numbers, which covered the months of July through September, do not paint the general picture of the publication industry but "there is no doubt the tough economic times put pressure on newspapers and some people may cut back on how many they purchase."

"There is also a structural shift. As publishers develop and market digital platforms and versions of the paper some people are picking up those as well," Hale was quoted by AdNews as saying in explaining the defining changes that the newspaper sector has seen so far.

The only consolation, he added, news publications are reaching more and more readers through their digital versions, which in the future will hopefully compensate for the losses that traditional newspapers are incurring at present.