Starting today, print newspapers by The New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd (NSTP) will no longer be sold in Sabah and Sarawak.

East Malaysian readers will only be able to follow the dailies through the online versions, it was reported today.

Berita Harian in a report today said online versions of the papers would enable readers to get news faster.

However, latest statistics from The Audit Bureau of Circulations Malaysia (ABC) show that all newspapers in all languages have experienced a massive drop in circulation, of as much as 62.2 percent.

From 2012 to 2016, NSTP’s Harian Metro showed a 62.5 percent drop in sales, from 379,169 copies to 142,262.

New Straits Times fared the worst in absolute terms, seeing a 41.6 percent drop in circulation from 93,321 in 2012 to 54,490 copies last year end.

Berita Harian, along with the other mainstream Malay daily Utusan Malaysia, both saw circulation fall as much as 30 percent in the same period.