Sales of newspapers edged up worldwide by more than 2% in 2004 while advertising revenue recorded significant gains, according to the World Association of Newspapers.
In its report on trends in the newspaper industry, WAN said 395 million copies of newspapers were sold daily in 2004 and read by an estimated one billion people worldwide.
China, India and Japan were the world's biggest newspaper markets in 2004 and China overtook Japan as the country with the highest number of publications in the world's top 100. Three-quarters of the world's 100 best selling daily newspapers were published in Asia where sales were up 4.1% for the year.
The figures, from WAN's annual survey of world press trends, were released to over 1,300 publishers, editors and other senior newspaper executives from 81 countries attending the World Newspaper Congress and the World Editors Forum, which opened today.
Worldwide newspaper circulation grew 2.1%, the number of daily titles was up 2% and advertising revenue rose 5.3%, its biggest jump in four years, the WAN report said.
'It has been an extraordinarily positive 12 months for the global newspaper industry,' said Timothy Balding, director general of the Paris-based WAN. 'Newspapers are clearly undergoing a renaissance through new products, new formats, new titles, new editorial approaches, better distribution and better marketing,' he added.
Despite a tough business environment the advertising pie had expanded, generating more revenue for newspapers, even though the portion of the pie going to the print media was gradually eroding, from 30.5% in 2003 to 30.1% in 2004.
Revenue grew 29% in China last year, more than double the growth in 2003, and 116% over five years. It was up 3.93% in the world's biggest advertising market, the US, more than double last year's increase which reversed two years of decline.
While revenue was up, newspapers continued to lose readers in many traditional strongholds, including Europe, though the drop was less sharp than in previous years.
In China newspaper sales continued to outperform the world average, up 3.7% in the year and 26.5% over five years.
The top three largest newspaper markets were in Asia, with China in the lead with 93.5 million copies sold daily, followed by India, with 78.8 million, and Japan, with 70.4. The US came next with 48.3 million followed by Germany with 22.1 million. The report pointed out that sales in the three Asian market leaders were rising while sales were declining in the US and Germany.
The world's biggest selling newspaper remains the Yomiuri Shimbun of Japan with its 14,067,000 copies daily.
World circulation figures showed that sales were up 4.1% in Asia in 2004 over the previous year, up 6.3% in South America, up 6% in Africa, down 1.4% in Europe, down 0.2% in North America and down 1% in Australia and Oceania.
