The newspaper publishing sector suffered a heavy blow this morning after it took a look at the new circulation numbers, depicting quarterly sales that plunged by no less than 2.5% in contrast to the similar period for the year 2009.

As per the Audit Bureau of Circulation numbers, out of the available 25 main capital city and national journals and weekend newspapers, 22 of these suffered a loss in sales for the month of June quarter.

6.8% to 514,405 sales losses were witnessed by the Sunday Mail in Queensland, which was the highest number.

Only two journals, the West Australia and News Limited’s Daily Telegraph succeeded in managing a record increase of 3.3% and 0.8% correspondingly.

Out of the daily papers, the Australian Financial Review recorded the highest plunge in sales, with a 5.9% fall to 77,046.

Following this, The Age plunged 4.5% to 197,500 and the Geelong Advertiser dropped by 4.1% to 180.091.

The Daily Telegraph suffered a loss of 3.8% to 374,395 with the Herald Sun losing 2.1% to 515,500.

Sydney Morning Herald also lost 1.4% to 207,013.

The highest levels of decline were seen by the Sunday papers. The Daily Telegraph recorded an increase of 0.8% to 339,621.