The decline of The Salt Lake Tribune's average daily circulation worsened in the latest reporting period, while Deseret News readership, which had been holding steady, weakened, according to figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Circulation of The Tribune sank 6.2 percent in the April-September period from the same six-month span in 2008. That was greater than the 2.7 percent decline in the October 2008-March 2009, but circulation fell 5 percent in the 2008 April-September period.

The Tribune now circulates 112,585 daily newspapers, compared to 119,977 papers a year ago, according to the ABC, which keeps an eye on U.S. newspaper industry readership.

Editor Nancy Conway acknowledged that circulation of the Tribune's paper product is down as the paper stops serving hard-to-reach locations and limits circulation to Utah's core area.

But offsetting the fall is robust growth of online readership. Visits to The Tribune Web site increased 4.7 percent in the year ending June 30, while page views rose 5.3 percent, she said.

"We count readers or users, not just print newspaper subscribers. Many of our readers have obviously migrated to online. So while print might be down, our readership is growing in general," Conway said.

The Tribune was No. 12 among the top 25 newspapers with the biggest increases in combined print and online audiences, according to a survey by Scarborough Research on behalf of the ABC. The survey, reported Monday by Editor and Publisher magazine, showed Utah's biggest paper had a combined print and online audience of 666,377 in the past month, up 6.1 percent from a year earlier .

Circulation of the News dropped 3.4 percent in the April-September period. Six months earlier, the LDS Church-owned paper saw its readership remain virtually flat. Circulation increased 2.1 percent in the April-September span in 2008 as the News accelerated its transformation into a newspaper serving a mostly Mormon audience.

Daily circulation of the News now stands at 68,715, down from 71,132 last year. Editor Joe Cannon did not return a call seeking comment.

Sunday circulation at The Tribune fell 4.3 percent to 130,055 in the latest six-month period, but the News gained readership as its Sunday circulation reached 78,742, up 4.1 percent.

The declines at Utah's top two papers weren't as bad as industrywide losses. Circulation of all U.S. papers plummeted 10.6 percent, accelerating from 7.1 percent six months earlier and 4.6 percent a year ago.

Sunday readership fell 7.5 percent in the latest April-September interval.

The Associated Press contributed to this report