Fewer people buying city's daily paper

Earthquakes, changing buyer and reading habits appear to have had a big impact on the city's paid daily newspaper.

Over the last 12 months, on average The Press circulation has dropped 3796 daily or 22,776 copies over a week.

Their average daily circulation is now 75,705 for the year ending September 2012, down from 79,501 for the same period in 2011.

Media insiders say the loss of people from Christchurch due to the earthquakes, the cost of subscribing to a daily newspaper in a tight economy, free news online and free home delivered newspapers such as The Star were the cause.

The Press general manager Andrew Boyle blamed the circulation drop on a "weakness through retail sales".

"It's really casual sales we've seen drop off," he said.

Readership figures were "pretty resilient".

Asked if the continuing circulation drop might tempt Fairfax-owned The Press to change its broadsheet format to compact like the New Zealand Herald had, Mr Boyle said: "We have no immediate plans in that regard.

"But you can never say never."

Meanwhile, the Waikato Times, like The Press, owned by Fairfax, recorded the biggest daily newspaper drop in New Zealand, losing 10.5 per cent of its circulation.

In the competitive Sunday newspaper market, the Fairfax Sunday Star-Times and Sunday News continued their slide, losing 14.3 per cent and 16.7 per cent respectively.

However, the APN-owned Herald on Sunday continued its circulation growth with a 3.1 per cent increase.