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

The Newspaper Publishing Industry 
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whether the market can sustain the desired quality of output. Will vulnerable news genres, 
such as investigative journalism, sustained reporting on local government and local politics, 
or foreign news reporting in areas which are not of immediate political or economic interest, 
be able to survive? There are examples of online journalism, where news publishers have 
experimented with alternative ways of funding, such as, sponsorship and crowd funding. 
Crowd funding means that journalists ask readers directly to invest, either financially or by 
offering their time and knowledge, in a particular story. Alternatively, readers can also 
suggest subjects which they wish to read about and want journalists to go after, and put these 
up for funding. So far these seem to be more successful in the US than in European countries, 
possibly due to larger home markets with a longer tradition of private sponsorship than 
Europe. 
Competitiveness and single market 
A core element in EU policies is the creation of a single market which would increase the 
competitiveness of European industries. In its Digital Agenda, the European Commission has 
indicated that it intends to remove remaining obstacles for digital content to be made available 
across Europe.
The competitiveness of an industry is often expressed in terms of its relative size and growth 
potential. The European newspaper publishing industry was the largest in the world in 2009, 
when compared to Asia and the US in terms of turnover. When looking at the economic 
health and growth potential of the sector, a bleaker image appears. Circulation is declining in 
most European countries, as it is in the US where the decline in circulation is even steeper. In 
Asian countries, it is growing, due to the rising levels of wealth and education. The growth in 
Asian countries, however, may be a temporary phenomenon though, as the Asian newspaper 
industry may well face similar problems as the US and European newspaper publishing 
industries, once internet penetration and computer use grow.
The decline in circulation and employment in the EU27 is not as steep as it is in the US. This 
can be explained by the fact that European newspapers depend less on advertising revenues, 
and have higher readerships, especially in the northern countries. In addition, quite a few 
European newspaper publishers are still family or privately-owned businesses, which are 
better equipped to survive economic recession than companies listed on the stock market 
because, amongst other reasons, maximizing profits is not their only or main goal. 
Another indicator for competitiveness is the trade balance, which expresses the relation 
between import and export. Cultural and linguistic differences limit the extent to which a 
single market for media and content is feasible and this seems especially true for newspapers, 
which also in their content often cater for national or even regional and local readerships. 
However, there are a number of international newspapers, or newspapers which publish 
different language versions or international versions of their newspapers and some 
newspapers are sold outside their country of origin. 
Trade balance figures for the newspaper publishing industry in the EU27 show a lot of 
fluctuations between 1995 and 2007, but an average negative growth rate of 10.6% (the trade 
deficit grew by 10.6% annually). Figures on intra- and extra-EU27 trade in newspapers and 
magazines show that most countries imported and exported mainly from and to other EU27 
countries.
Figures on which shares of circulation and revenues come from national newspapers and 
which from foreign newspapers are lacking, which makes it difficult to provide a quantitative 
assessment of the market position of European newspapers vis-à-vis foreign newspapers, but 

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