Many Australian executives ignore their computer in January and turn to newspapers – at least that is the belief of employers and executive search agencies, according to a new report. In fact, according to the report, newspapers may be finding a niche that internet jobs boards don't fill.

According to the E.L Executive Demand Index, for executive search firm E.L Consult, internet for executive positions fell 43% during the January holidays but newspaper advertising actually rose by 29%.

The result is in stark contrast to the long-term trend, which has seen Internet advertising outperform print job advertisements by more than six to one over the past two years.

"Newspapers have been largely unable to take advantage of the boom in executive advertising that has occurred since 2001. However January is proving there are exceptions to this rule,” said Grant Montgomery, managing director of E.L Consult.

"I guess reading newspapers is easier than going on line if you’re on holiday.  But we are also seeing a trend back towards newspaper advertising that is not just holiday related.

“On line recruitment is much cheaper and more efficient but it doesn’t catch people who are not actually looking for a job and in the case of recruitment companies it doesn’t get their name in front of the public.

“January figures may have highlighted the benefit of hard copy advertising but there is more at play here.  We can partly predict from this that a total decline in newspaper job advertising is not inevitable.

“While internet will continue to take a larger share of the recruitment market it will reach a point where this growth will slow.

“And this point is not far away. We ourselves are now finding response rates and the quality of applicant is greater for some positions from newspaper advertising.  And this is occurring not only here but across Asia."