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

Statistical, Ecosystems and Competitiveness Analysis of the Media and Content Industries 
32
 
Figure 5: Estimated newspaper market decline in European countries (circulation), 2007-2008 
‐21
‐20
‐18
‐16
‐11
‐10
‐10
‐9
‐8
‐8
‐8
‐7
‐7
‐7
‐6
‐6
‐6
‐4
‐2
‐25
‐20
‐15
‐10
‐5
0
UK
Greece
Italy
Spain 
Poland
Ireland
Germany
Hungary
Norway
Switzerland
Belgium
Finland
Sweden
Portugal
Czech. Rep.
Netherlands
Denmark
France
Austria
Percent (%)
Source: OECD, 2010. 
Figure 6 shows the changes between 2005 and 2009 in average circulation in the 10 European 
countries with the largest paid-for newspaper circulation in Europe.
11
In Germany, the largest 
newspaper producer in the European market, every day approximately 20 million paid-for 
newspapers are printed. Germany is followed by the United Kingdom (14 million copies) and 
France (7.4 million copies). As Figure 7 shows, most of these 10 European countries, except 
for Austria, have witnessed a drop in circulation between 2005 and 2009.
11
Total average circulation is the number of copies of all titles sold or distributed in a country/geographical area 
per issue. 

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The Newspaper Publishing Industry 
33
 
Figure 6: Total average circulation paid-for-dailies (in millions) 2005-2009 top-10 EU countries
0
5
10
15
20
25
Ge
rm
an
y
UK
Fra
nce
Ita
ly
Spa
in
Ne
th
erl
an
ds
Po
land
Sw
ed
en
Au
st
ria
Sw
itz
er
lan
d
(*million)
2005
2009
Source: TNO, based on WAN-IFRA, 2010. 
In Figure 7, the development in circulation is given in three time periods; 1996-1999, 2000-
2004 and 2005-2009. The six European countries with the largest newspaper circulations and 
also the US and Japan show a steady decline. The decline started later in Spain, Italy and 
France as these countries still showed some growth in circulation in the earliest period 
between 1996 and 1999. After 2000 all countries show negative growth. This indicates a 
fairly structural overall decline in this sector. In contrast the circulation in India and China 
over these years has shown substantial growth, even though the growth in China with 10.4% 
between 2005 and 2009 was less than in the previous period when the average newspaper 
circulation grew with 26.5%.

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