Newspaper circulation in Asia grows 3.44%

The Asian edition of World Press Trends, released last week to coincide with Publish Asia 2009 held in Chennai India, shows that newspaper circulation in Asia grew 3.44% in 2008 over the previous year, despite the global downturn and has grown 17.52% over the past five years.

This the first regional edition of the annual global World Press Trends survey published by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). It includes reports on 25 countries and a wealth of summaries that provide a detailed picture of the newspaper market in the region.

The data has been gathered and processed with the assistance of a wide variety of contributors, ranging from newspaper associations to individual analysts. It also contains a wealth of data from ZenithOptimedia, which provides forecasts based on current trends.

Highlights of report

India and China - world leaders in the newspaper industry in terms of size (45%).

• India has more daily newspapers than any other country
• Leads in paid-for daily circulation, surpassing China for the first time in 2008

Asian internet users rose 23.51% to more than 704 million - 116% jump over past five years.

More broadband subscribers in Asia than any other region - nearly 158 million
*Broadband subscribers grew 23.33% last year and 145% over the past five years
• 123 million broadband subscribers in Europe (7.4% 2008)
• 97.5 million Broadband subscribers in North America (11%)
• 19 million in South America (36%)
• 6 million in Australia and Oceania (6.6%)
• 2.5 million in Africa (28%)

Asia also leads in number of mobile cellular subscriptions - nearly 2 billion up 25% in 2008 and 163% from 2004

• 894 million in Europe (7% 2008),
• 425 million in North America (7%),
• 365 million in Africa (33%),
• 328 million in South America (21%),
• 28 million in Australia and Oceania (5%)

Paid-for newspaper circulation - no figures were available for 2008 in Bhutan, China and Pakistan. Japan was excluded from the regional summaries, which focus on the developing markets in the region. In countries in which figures were available last year:

• Rose in eight countries:
Afghanistan (11.11%)
Bangladesh (7.14%)
Burma (13.51%)
Cambodia (9.09%)
India (8.26%)
Indonesia (6.86%)
Nepal (2.94)
Thailand (0.68 %)
• Fell in eight countries and territories:
Brunei (8.89%)
Hong Kong (2.44 %)
Korea (1.04%)
Malaysia (4.92%)
Singapore (1.48%)
Sri Lanka (2%)
Taiwan (5%)
Vietnam (0.71%)
• Remained stable
North Korea
Laos
Macau
Maldives
Philippines
East Timor

Asia has emerged as the world's most dynamic media market, where internet, broadband and mobile usage are exploding and the region's newspapers - the world's largest - continue to grow alongside digital media. For more details visit www.wan-press.org/worldpresstrends.