At the congress, where the results of the latest surveys and research projects conducted on subjects relevant to journalism are revealed, we sometimes get very surprising news. For instance, this year we were surprised to hear that Turkey is the nation that spends the longest time reading newspapers, although we always thought that Turks were bad readers. During the congress, held in the Swedish town of Göteborg and attended by 1,800 editors-in-chief, editors and high-ranking managers from the press sector from 113 countries, WAN CEO Timothy Balding released the results of a survey, and according to this report, Turks spend the most time -- 74 minutes each day on average -- with their newspapers. Turks are followed by Belgians, with 54 minutes, and the Finns and Chinese, both with 48 minutes each. However, the Japanese remain the world's greatest newspaper buyers, with 624 daily sales per 1,000 adults. They are followed by Norway, with 580 sales per 1,000 adults, Finland, with 503, and Sweden and Singapore, both with 449.
The good news revealed to us at the initial sessions of the WAN-WEF congress wasn't limited to this. According to the same report, worldwide newspaper circulations rose by 2.57 percent in 2007, while the rapid growth of free dailies and online platforms is expanding the reach of newspapers everywhere. Thus, global newspaper sales reached a new high of more than 532 million daily. With free dailies added, the daily circulation increases to more than 573 million, a 3.65 percent increase from the total circulation in 2006 (a 14.3 percent increase over 2003). The average readership is estimated at more than 1.7 billion people each day.
One more piece of good news comes from the advertising sector. Advertising revenues in paid dailies were up 0.86 percent last year from the previous year and up 12.84 percent over 2003, WAN said. Print remains the world's largest advertising medium, with a 40 percent rise. Newspaper advertising revenue increased by 0.86 percent in 2007 over 2006, and was up 9.39 percent over 2003.
Meanwhile, the total number of paid-for daily titles in the world was up by 2.98 percent in 2007 and up 11.02 percent since 2003, hitting a record 11,926 titles. The total number of paid and free titles increased by 3.65 percent in 2007 over 2006 and by 14.3 percent over 2003.
It was interesting to learn that 74 of the world's 100 best-selling dailies are published in Asia. China, Japan and India are home to 62 of them. The five largest markets for newspapers are China, with 107 million copies sold daily; India, with 99 million copies daily; Japan, with 68 million copies daily; the United States, with nearly 51 million; and Germany, with 20.6 million.
In the European Union, paid dailies saw a 2.37 percent drop in 2007 from 2006 and a 5.91 percent drop compared to 2003. Combined with free dailies, however, circulation in the EU rose 2 percent over 2006 and 9.61 percent over 2003. The circulation of US dailies fell 3.03 percent in 2007 compared with 2006 and 8.05 percent compared to 2003. Most of the decline came in evening dailies, which saw a year-on-year circulation decline of 10.08 percent, compared with the 1.97 percent drop for morning dailies. In Japan, newspaper sales fell by 0.96 percent in 2007. Compared with five years ago, sales are down 2.70 percent. However, China's newspaper sales continue to perform well, up 3.84 percent over 2006 and 20.69 over 2003. Indian newspaper sales increased 11.22 percent in 2007 and 35.51 percent over 2003.
Despite a surge in the number of ads in newspapers, newspapers' share in the world ad market in 2007 fell slightly to 27.5 percent in 2007 from 28.7 percent in 2006. Nevertheless, newspaper remain the world's second largest advertising medium, after television, with more revenue than radio, cinema and the internet combined. When newspapers and magazines are combined, print is the world's largest advertising medium, with a 40 percent share, compared to 38 percent for television. Newspaper advertising revenues -- excluding free dailies, for which consistent data is not yet available -- increased in all regions except North America, where they fell 2.77 percent in 2007.
The WAN report points out that the real boom in the world ad market came about on the Internet. Internet advertising revenues were up 32.45 percent last year over 2006 and 200 percent over 2003. Most of the revenue is generated in the US, western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. In Europe, internet advertising revenues now surpass classified revenues, while searches remain the largest advertising market online. Online newspaper revenues are forecast to more than double in the next five years and will account for 12 percent of total newspaper advertising by 2011.
A total of 312 free daily newspapers had a combined circulation of 41.04 million, a circulation increase of 20 percent over 2006 and 173.2 percent over 2003. The six largest free dailies are Leggo in Italy (1.95 million copies), Metro in the UK (1.37 million copies), 20 Minutos in Spain (1 million copies), Metro in Canada (990,000 copies) and Que! and ADN in Spain (959,000 copies each).
The number of newspaper Web sites also grew by 13.77 percent in 2007 and by 50.77 percent over 2003. However, a study in the US shows that newspaper Web site users also read the print editions: 81 percent of online newspaper readers also read a printed newspaper at least once a week.
That's the news about news from the WAN-WEF Congress.
