Despite massive worldwide growth in use of the internet last year, newspaper circulations and advertising revenues also grew, according to the World Association of Newspapers.
WAN’s World Press Trends survey revealed that paid newspaper sales grew by 0.56 per cent, helped by growth in Asia, to 439 million daily. With the inclusion of free dailies — circulation increased 1.21 per cent last year to 464 million a day.
According to WAN, advertising revenue for paid dailies increased by 5.7 per cent.
WAN chief executive Tim Balding said: “Newspapers are increasing their reach through the exploitation of a wide range of new distribution channels, ranging from daily free newspapers to online editions.
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“They are proving to be incredibly resilient against the onslaught of a wide range of media competition.” Daily paid newspaper circulations declined across the EU in 2005, according to WAN — but when free dailies, such as Metro in the UK, are added in, WAN claims that circulation increased by 1.34 per cent, year on year.
According to WAN, the UK was among countries recording on overall increase in newspaper circulation in 2005, up 0.05 per cent.
WAN reported that in the US, evening daily newspaper circulation fell by 6.6 per cent in 2005 and morning dailies fell by 1.6 per cent.
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Global newspaper advertising revenue reportedly increased by 5.7 per cent with a 30.2 per cent share of the market.
WAN said: “Newspapers remain the world’s second largest advertising medium, after television, and are expected to retain this position for many years.”
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