The latest newspaper circulation numbers are in and — stop us if you've heard this one — it doesn't look pretty for the laser-toner-stained wretches over on Franklin Street.

The Telegram & Gazette has continued to struggle, albeit on a slower downward slope than in the past. They posted a 4% drop in daily circulation from last year's 84,754 to this year's 81,437 daily average. And that includes a change in methodology from last year, when the average included Saturday, a notorious slow day for papers. This year's data is based on a Monday-Friday average.

Of course, it could be much worse. Last April, the Telegram reported a six-month 11% drop in circulation, five times worse than the national average.

But it is Sundays that have been particularly bad for the T&G. Sunday circulation is down 6.2% from last year, to 96,553, following a 5.9% drop last year.

The T&G is hardly alone. Of the top 25 papers nationwide, only two — USA Today and The Wall Street Journal experienced a daily average increase. And The Boston Globe was the worst-performing of the top papers, falling 8.34% over the past year.

Katie Donahue, the Telegram's director of consumer marketing, says that while “paid subscriptions are off,” readership is remaining steady. “What we have been promoting as readership is about the same,” she says. “Which tells us more people are reading our product, but not subscribing.” She attributes a good deal of that to the paper's Web presence. In March, the Web site had 551,000 unique visitors, and 8.2 million page views. o