Television posed a similar threat in the 1960s and ‘70s. There were concerns that television would destroy the popularity of the print media, ending newspapers all together. Now there are new rumors that the instant flow of information through the Internet will harm the press media. America, which has realized its maximum level of potential readers, has appealed to many print media organizations in Europe and Japan to decrease prices and modify page size and format as part of efforts to survive the advance of the Internet.
Despite these efforts, there was always the belief that the Internet, which provides information faster and more freely than radio and television, would ultimately end the need for newspapers. But how real is this disaster scenario? Does it reflect the truth? Certainly not! Here is the reason.
While such disaster scenarios might hold some truth for newspapers in developed countries that have met the saturation point of potential readers, it does not hold true for newspapers in countries such as Turkey, where the readership potential has not been fully realized. In Turkey, the use of journalism and the Internet are both on the rise. Just five years ago only 3 to 3.5 million people of the country’s 70 million were regular newspaper readers. Today, the figure is 5 to 5.6 million. Although there are increasing advertisement alternatives, newspapers still receive around $2 billion from ads. The Internet is not harming journalism. On the contrary, it is increasing the number of readers.
The situation really isn’t all that bad. Concerns for the future of newspaper are groundless, as statistics announced during the World Association of Newspapers and World Editors Forum in Cape Town prove many people still read the newspaper.
According to the statistics, newspaper circulation worldwide rose 2.3 percent in 2006 while newspaper ad revenues showed substantial gains and newspapers sales increased 9.48 percent over the past five years.
Newspaper sales increased year-on-year in Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America. The only continent to register a decline was North America.
When free dailies are added to the paid newspaper circulation, global circulation increased 4.61 percent last year and 14.74 percent over the past five years. Free dailies now account for nearly 8 percent of all global newspaper circulation and 31.94 percent in Europe alone. Advertising revenues in paid dailies were up 3.77 percent last year from a year earlier and up 15.77 percent over five years.
Timothy Balding, CEO of the Paris-based WAN, evaluated the current developments on newspapers and said: “Newspapers in developing markets continue to increase circulation by leaps and bounds, and in mature markets are showing remarkable resilience against the onslaught of digital media. Even in many developed nations, the industry is maintaining or even increasing sales. At the same time, newspapers are taking advantage of all the new opportunities provided by the digital distribution channels to increase their audiences.”
As Balding noted again, we can see that far from being an industry in decline, as the ill-informed and short-sighted insist, newspapers are alive and well and exhibiting enormous innovation and energy to maintain their places as the media of choice for hundreds of millions of people daily.
In 2002, 488 million newspapers were sold each day. That figure rose to 556 million in 2006, increasing the number of readers by 1.4 million and suggesting that newspapers will remain a public commodity for many years to come.
