Many newspapers are reporting decline in sales. This has been the case for the last five years. Daily newspaper circulation has fallen by 22% equivalent of 2.6million of total circulation.

In addition, Sunday newspaper circulation has also fallen by 28% equivalent of 3.3million copies. It is highly rumoured that some newspapers are considering ditching their printed editions to cut down costs. The Guardian is expected to be the first newspaper to make this move.

Mark Knight is a director at Broadgate Mainland, the financial services PR experts.

The speculation is not surprising to many, given that many UK national newspaper websites enjoyed a great start in 2013. They virtually reported double digit growth. For example, The Guardian Online newspaper set a new traffic record of 4.3million average daily unique users. This is an increase of 17 percent month on month.

The pattern of decline in newspaper sales is easy to spot particularly when walking through average commuter train locations, where paid for newspapers are rare compared to the situation in the past. When riding on these trains, you can evidently see why that is so as many people read newspapers on their tablets. Computer tablets are recording booming sales.

According to research conducted by YouGov market research, about 12.2million UK population (29%) own a tablet. Additional 7% are planning on buying one in the coming months. The study also disclosed that many people were likely to read news on their tablets. Majority of those people are younger readers. In terms of age 54% of 18-24 year olds preferred tablet as did 60% of 25-34 year olds. Still from the research the people who are most likely to download an application from any of the national newspapers were those of ages 18-24 with 40% compared to 30% from across all demographics.

This is a clear indication that tablets ownership will be the future lifeline for publishers. This is only if they are able to switch their readers to paid for applications. Already progress is being made by some newspaper publishers like The Times which owns ten most lucrative iPad apps on UK app store in 2012.

Mark Knight is a director at Broadgate Mainland, the financial services PR experts.