The newspaper industry in Australia is facing problems as sales continued to dip below as it points its blame on slower news year and not on news online sites.

Figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) showed that Metropolitan and national newspapers got low sales with only three per cent in the March quarter unlike the previous period a year ago.

Weekday editions of Fairfax Media Limited's The Australian Financial Review was badly hit, limping to 8.6 per cent to 75, 624 copies. Its Saturday edition also fell down by 6.6 per cent to 91,735 copies.

ABC also pointed out that News Limited's The Australian also received a blow when its sales dropped by 4.4 per cent from 138,765 to 132,690 copies for its weekday editions while its weekend editions declined to 3.7 per cent to 304,548 copies.

The Sydney Morning Herald also suffered as its weekday editions fell at 1.7 per cent to 209,011, while The Age newspaper's weekday editions slipped down by 4.1 per cent to 189,500.

Saturday editions for SMH decreased to 5.3 per cent to 359,000 while the Age had a 5.1 per cent loss to 294,900 copies.

The Daily Telegraph in Sydney had a 3 per cent loss to 349,635 while its Saturday edition dropped to 1.1 per cent to 331,272.

Tony Hale, chief executive of media industry group Newspaper Works, said the slow of sales is attributed to a slow news year instead of the rising of digital media.

"Circulation during that period was stronger because, as we have seen so often, Australians turn to newspapers in tough times or when there is news of great significance,” he said.

Mr. Hale said there is nothing to worry on online competition as people still regard newspapers as the most reliable source.

He added that newspapers still remained as the premier news source while online news only complimented their print counterparts.

However, several media analysts disagree with Mr. Hale, stating the use of free online news and comment sites were the reasons for the fall of newspaper sales.