MEDIA: Circulation Growing Despite Internet

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 14 2000 (IPS) - Newspaper circulation and readership is growing worldwide, despite the spread of Internet, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) reported at its annual congress, held this year in Brazil.

But the 1,400 journalists and editors meeting in Rio de Janeiro Sunday through Wednesday at the 53rd World Newspaper Congress and the seventh World Editors Forum (WEF) also expressed their concern over violence against journalists and restrictions of freedom of the press.

At least 71 journalists were killed worldwide while exercising their profession last year, nine of them in Latin America, and 124 spent time in prison in 24 countries, said the president of WAN, Bengt Braun.

The congress awarded the Golden Pen of Freedom to Syrian reporter Nizar Nayouf, who has been in prison for the past eight years for defending democracy. It heard the testimony of Colombian journalist Francisco Santos Calderón, who was kidnapped by drug traffickers 10 years ago and held for eight months.

Santos Calderón pointed out that four of the nine journalists killed in Latin America were murdered in Colombia, and called on the international associations to set up a permanent commission to monitor violations of press freedom in his conflict-torn country.

With respect to the challenges posed by technological changes, especially the expansion of the worldwide web, participants heard that last year newspapers recovered lost ground, according to studies on the evolution of circulation and readership, which have been drawn up for WAN congresses since 1987.

Circulation increased in 25 of the 46 countries on which comparative data was gathered, while it remained steady in two. And in countries where sales had sharply declined in the past few years, the downward trend slowed, like in the 15-member European Union, where circulation slid just 0.1 percent in 1999, against a 2.2 percent drop — representing a total 1.85 million copies — from 1995 to 1999.

Interestingly, circulation of newspapers climbed 38.3 percent from 1995 to 1999 in Austria, and 12.5 percent in Portugal.

But sales fell 8.2 percent in Luxembourg, 7.9 percent in Sweden, 7.7 percent in Greece and 5.7 percent in the Netherlands.

Sales of daily newspapers also remained on a downward trend in the United States. But the 0.4 percent drop recorded last year virtually halted a long, steady fall in circulation. In the past 10 years, sales plunged 10.7 percent, equivalent to 6.67 million copies a year.

Performance has varied widely in Latin America, as in Europe. From 1995 to 1999, circulation of daily papers grew 10.6 percent in Brazil, while it plummeted 15.5 percent in Argentina, with most of that fall reported last year.

Advertising revenues, meanwhile, were not hurt by the emergence of new media. Indeed, newspapers took advantage of Internet, reporting a gradual increase. Overall, revenues were 18.8 percent up on 1987 figures, and this year the cumulative growth could top 20 percent, WAN reported.

The data indicates that television was the big loser. Among Internet users, 78 percent said they had cut down on their television-watching, while only 12 percent said they had reduced their newspaper-reading time, according to WAN Director General Timothy Balding.

The number of daily newspapers also increased in the world last year. New publications appeared in 22 of the 46 countries studied, while the total number of papers dropped in just 13 countries.

Russia stood out with 45 new papers, bringing its total to 2,680 – the greatest diversity of daily papers in the world.

One major problem discussed at the congress was the gap in readership between industrialised and developing nations.

While more than 300 copies of daily newspapers are sold per 1,000 inhabitants in some countries of the industrialised North, like Switzerland and Japan, that ratio is below 100:1,000 in many nations in Latin America, Africa, eastern Europe and Asia.

The gap is smaller in terms of the total number of adults reading newspapers, but the proportion is over 80 percent in countries like Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Japan, while it rarely reaches 50 percent in the developing world.

A correlation was also found between the readership gap between men and women and the level of development of nations and regions.

While readership is nearly equal for both sexes in countries of the industrialised North, and in the Latin American exception, Costa Rica, a major imbalance was found in the Mediterranean region and in developing countries in general.

In Spain, 46 percent of adult men read daily newspapers, against just 24 percent of women. In Portugal, the proportions are 58 and 24 percent, respectively; in Colombia, 32 and 20 percent; and in Lebanon, 31 and 19 percent.