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

Iceland
 
38.7
5.4
UK
 
38.4
26.2
Estonia
 
38.1
17.1
Sweden
 
36.9
8.1
Austria
 
36.8
15.6
Switzerland
 
35.5
9.0
Netherlands
 
35.0
19.9
Germany
 
33.3
19.4
Slovenia
 
32.1
14.9
Czech Republic
 
31.9
22.1
Hungary
 
31.2
21.4
Denmark
 
31.0
21.7
Luxembourg
 
30.9
22.5
Slovakia
 
29.3
25.5
Poland
 
26.2
30.6
France
 
22.5
39.4
Belgium
 
22.8
45.7
Portugal
 
19.8
41.5
Spain
 
17.7
49.2
Greece
 
16.2
66.3
*Respondents who do not read a newspaper on ‘an average day’ are included with the value of 0 
minutes. 
Note: Italy does not participate in the ESS. 
Source: European Social Survey, 2004. 
 
Data from the European Social Survey (2008) show that in 2008 almost half the population in 
Spain and Belgium, and 40% of residents in France spend no time at all reading a newspaper 
on an average day (Table 10). In contrast, in Sweden more than half of the residents read a 
newspaper for longer than half an hour per day and almost everyone reads newspapers. The 
UK stands out with almost one in five residents spending more than an hour per day reading a 
newspaper. 
Table 10: Time spent on newspaper reading 
 
BE 
DE 
ES 
FR 
NL 
SE 
UK 
No time at all 
42.4 
20.0 
48.2 
39.1 
20.8 
9.0 
32.3 
Less than 0,5 hour 
23.9 
32.3 
28.9 
31.2 
32.7 
34.5 
23.0 
0,5 hour to 1 hour 
22.2 
36.4 
17.4 
20.9 
29.7 
42.4 
26.3 
More than 1 hour 
11.5 
11.3 
5.5 
8.8 
16.9 
14.1 
18.3 
Total 
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 
Source: European Social Survey, 2008 (age 15+). 

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The Newspaper Publishing Industry 
41
 
Elvestad and Blekesaune (2008) offer a multilevel analysis of newspaper readers in Europe. 
They show that European men spent on average 5 minutes more per day on reading 
newspapers than women, and time spent on newspaper reading increases with age.
The large differences between European countries can be explained by both characteristics of 
the population and by the characteristics of the national, political context.
In Europe, especially the Nordic countries are known for their high readership density 
(OECD, 2010; Elvestad & Blekesaune, 2008). Outside Europe, Asian countries like Japan 
have the highest density of paid newspaper readership. In Japan 526 paid daily newspapers 
circulate per 1000 inhabitants. In comparison; the United States has 160 newspapers per 1000 
people. Norway and Finland both have more than 400 newspapers per 1000 inhabitants 
(OECD, 2010). Over the past few years, readership has shown a decline. It needs to be 
underlined that mainstream newspaper publishers were already losing parts of their audience 
since the last quarter of the twentieth century, before the internet became popular (Grueskin, 
Seave, & Graves, 2011). First many newspaper readers turned to television for news 
consumption, only much later internet became a major competitor.
Newspaper reach figures vary per country. In Figure 11 the daily reach of newspapers in 2009 
is projected for a number of European countries. In addition to daily reach, the difference in 
newspaper reading compared to 2005 is shown. In Sweden, 83% of all adults reads a 
newspaper daily in 2008, down by 4% since 2005. In the UK, only 33% of the adult 
population reads a newspaper daily. The daily newspaper reach in the UK has remained stable 
between 2005 and 2008.