NEW DELHI, August 26: India is the second largest newspaper market in the world, not surprisingly, behind China. About 78.8 million copies of newspapers sold in India daily, compared to 93.5 million in China, according to World Press Trends 2005, was released by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) recently.
According to the report, after China and India the largest newspaper markets are in Japan, with 70.4 million copies daily; the United States (US), with 55.6 million; and Germany, 22.1 million. Sales of newspapers increased in China, India and Japan in 2004, but declined in the US and Germany.
"It has been an extraordinarily positive 12 months for the global newspaper industry," said Timothy Balding, director-general WAN. "We have come to expect big circulation gains in developing countries, but it has been a very long time since we saw such a revival in so many mature markets. Newspapers are clearly undergoing a renaissance through new products, new formats, new titles, new editorial approaches, better distribution and better marketing."
Asia, as a whole, dominates the world newspaper market. Three-quarters of the world's 100 bestselling dailies are now published in Asia. China has overtaken Japan as the country with the highest number of publications in the top 100. The range of the top 100 goes from the Yomiuri Shimbun of Japan with its 14,067,000 copies daily to six newspapers - two in each country - in China, Thailand and Taiwan, with 600,000 daily sales.
Globally, the total circulation of dailies climbed 2.1 per cent in 2004. Over the last five years, the growth has been 4.8 percent. Sales of newspapers increased in 44 per cent of the countries surveyed and were stable in a further 12 per cent. A little more than 30 per cent of those markets show a rise over five years. More than 395 million people buy a newspaper every day, up from 374 million in 1999. The average readership is estimated to be more than one billion people every day.
Circulation sales were up 4.1 per cent in Asia in 2004 over the previous year, up 6.3 per cent in South America, up 6 per cent in Africa, down 1.4 per cent in Europe, down 0.2 per cent in North America and down 1 per cent in Australia and Oceania. Newspapers in the European Union saw a slight 0.7 per cent drop in circulation in 2004, but sales were only 0.4 per cent less (or 360,000 copies) than five years ago.
Indian newspaper sales increased 8 per cent in 2004 and 14 per cent in the five-year period. In Pakistan, sales increased +3 per cent last year and +13 per cent over five years.
In Japan, newspaper sales grew by +0.04 per cent in 2004, the first increase in many years. Over five years, sales were down -2.13 per cent. China newspaper sales continued to perform well, up 3.7 and 26.5 per cent over one and five years. Elsewhere in Asia, sales in Singapore were up 3 per cent last year, Malaysian sales were up 4 per cent, Indonesia saw a 6.5 per cent increase and Mongolian newspapers increased sales by 31 per cent.
Newspapers in eight European Union countries increased their total circulation in 2004, compared with only one country in 2003. They were: Austria, up 1.9 per cent; Belgium +0.54 per cent; Estonia +2.39 per cent; Finland +0.53 per cent; Italy +0.19 per cent; Poland +15.21 per cent; Portugal +5.78 per cent; and Spain +1.31 per cent.
Those reporting losses were Czech Republic -0.36 per cent; Denmark -4.06 per cent; France -1.28 per cent; Germany -2.11 per cent; Greece -0.64 per cent; Hungary -4.55 per cent; Ireland -3.89 per cent; Latvia -0.56 per cent; Luxembourg -0.02 per cent; the Netherlands -3.35 per cent; Slovakia -5.14 per cent; Sweden -0.43 per cent; and the United Kingdom -4.43 per cent.
Over the five years 2000-2004, circulation declined in Belgium -5.21 per cent; Czech Republic -2.52 per cent; Denmark -10.53 per cent; Estonia -1.91 per cent; Finland -2.12 per cent; France -5.81 per cent; Germany -7.73 per cent; Greece -9.25 per cent; Hungary -9.48 per cent; Italy -5.53 per cent; Luxembourg -4.27 per cent; the Netherlands -8.54 per cent; Slovakia -11.28 per cent; Spain -0.49 per cent; Sweden -1;29 per cent and the United Kingdom -11.41 per cent.
In the same period, circulation rose in four countries: Austria +2.68 per cent; Ireland +29.27 per cent; Latvia +10.56 per cent and Poland +43.99 per cent. Elsewhere in Europe, circulation in 2004 declined -4.7 per cent in Iceland, -1.8 per cent in Norway, and -2.0 per cent in Switzerland. It was up 11.6 percent in Turkey. Over five years, the decline was -25 per cent in Iceland, -6.7 per cent in Norway and -6.7 per cent in Switzerland, while it climbed +20.2 per cent in Turkey.
The circulation of US dailies fell 1.0 per cent in 2004 and -2.06 over five years. Morning newspaper sales dropped by only 0.09 per cent and are up by 0.25 per cent over five years, while sales of evening editions declined by 6.2 and 14 per cent respectively.
In Latin America, where it has been difficult to obtain reliable data, Brazilian newspaper sales were up +0.8 per cent in 2004 but down -17.2 per cent over five years; Costa Rica reported circulation losses of -2.06 per cent in 2004 but was up 0.07 per cent over five years; while Bolivia saw in increase of +1.5 per cent in 2004.
Australia recorded a decline of -1.21 per cent in sales in 2004 and -4.83 per cent over five years, while New Zealand newspaper sales were stable year-on-year and down -4.96 per cent over five years.
The Norwegians and the Japanese remain the world's greatest newspaper buyers with 651 and 644 sales per thousand population each day respectively. Finland comes next with 522 followed by Sweden with 489.
The survey, which WAN has published annually since 1986, this year includes information on all countries and territories where newspapers are published -- 215 in all. The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom worldwide. It represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 72 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and worldwide press groups.
