Statistical, Ecosystems and Competitiveness Analysis of the Media and Content Industries: The Newspaper Publishing Industry

 
Germany
UK
France
Spain
Italy
The 
Netherlands
Other EU
countries
Total
Absolute figures x 
billion 
4.41
3.37
1.65
1.23
1.04
0.72
3.45
15.898
Source: TNO, 2010, based on Eurostat data. 
Figure 3 shows how five of these six countries witnessed a decline or at best stabilizing 
figures in the share of value added between 1995 and 2007. Only in Spain the share in the 
total value added increased. The sharpest decline is visible in the German and Dutch market. 
Figure 3: Share of six largest EU Member States in the total value added of the publishing of 
newspapers in 2007 and national growth 1995-2007 
Source: Eurostat. 
Figure 4 shows how the total valued added of the six EU Member States with the largest share 
in value added in the publishing of newspapers developed between 1995 and 2007. After 
2000, the value added of the German and Dutch newspaper publishing industries decreased 
with respectively 1.5 billion and 467 million EUR to a total value added of 4.4 billion and 720 
million EUR respectively in 2007.

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The Newspaper Publishing Industry 
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Figure 4: Six largest EU Member States in terms of share in total EU value added in newspaper 
publishing, period 1995-2007
Source: TNO, 2011, based on Eurostat. 
Calculations based on Eurostat data also show that the relative share of the newspaper 
publishing industry in the economy as a whole is declining in the EU9 but still growing in a 
number of new member states, in particular in Poland, Estonia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and 
Hungary.
9
2.3.2 Circulation 
Shifting from the company level to the level of the actual product, circulation, sales and 
advertising revenues provide additional indicators of economic health of the sector. Figure 5 
shows the estimated decline in newspaper circulation in a number of European countries 
between 2007 and 2008 (OECD, 2010). The United Kingdom, Greece, Italy and Spain are 
most affected by the declining market.
10
9
This is expressed in a specialisation index that compares the share of the publishing of newspapers as 
percentage of the overall economy in member states with the share of this sector in the overall EU economy. 
The share of the newspaper publishing sector in the total EU economy is put on 100, individual member states 
can deviate from this average. See the statistical report, part of the overall study, for more details (TNO, 
2011).
10
As measured between 2002 and 2008, these figures are even more negative; Denmark (-21%), the United 
Kingdom (-19%), The Netherlands (-18%), Switzerland (17%) and Germany (-16%) are examples (OECD, 
2010). 

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