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 
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generally speaking newspaper publishing has always been directed predominantly at national 
or even regional or local readers, rather than at international markets. 
The internet might offer new opportunities for newspaper websites and other news providers 
to offer international news services or to cater for emigrants, expats, business people, 
diplomats, academics and other travelers. Thus, there may be some potential for cross border 
news services, which aim to attract readers from outside the country where the publisher is 
based. 
However, there are no overall publicly-available figures of where news website visitors come 
from or how news services which explicitly target international readers perform. A certain 
level of internationalization is also taking place because newspapers are increasingly in the 
hands of multinational media companies, which may outsource some publishing activities to 
other countries or which may share certain resources across branches located in different 
countries. To make a proper assessment of the competitiveness of Europe’s newspaper 
industry, the fact that many newspapers have become part of multinational media 
conglomerates should therefore also be taken into account. 
Policy and regulation 
Developments in the newspaper market are affected by regulation. EU policies regarding 
competition, copyrights and advertising are among the policies which can have an impact on 
newspaper publishers. But media policies generally belong to the competence of Member 
States. Some countries impose ceilings on market shares and limitations on cross-ownership, 
out of concerns for media pluralism. Some countries directly subsidize newspapers (France, 
Sweden) or provide subsidies for innovation in the press (the Netherlands). Other countries 
support the press through indirect measures, such as tax benefits or reduced postal rates. 
The abundance of news and information that has become available these days on the internet, 
and the increasing competition which newspaper publishers face, have made the need for 
press ownership regulation debatable. In some countries, this has led to raising or lowering 
the ceilings on the market share allowed for a single newspaper publisher and the abolishment 
of limitations on cross-media ownership. At the same time, new concerns have arisen, e.g. 
about the level of investment in original news production, underserved areas (regions or 
municipalities that are no longer systematically covered by reporters) and the reliability and 
quality of citizen journalism, blogs and other forms of user-generated news. These concerns 
have been translated into government support or subsidies for media or newspaper innovation 
projects or training for journalists on how to adopt new media tools in their work. Generally, 
however, the sector is left to itself to adapt to the new digital environment.
Another area which affects the economic position of newspaper publishers and for which 
there are also policies at the European level is copyright policy. The practice of news 
aggregators deeplinking to articles on newspaper websites without paying has stirred up a 
major controversy between newspaper publishers and news aggregators, which has led to 
several court cases, so far unresolved. Due to its reliance on advertising revenues, the sector is 
vulnerable to EU and national restrictions on advertising for cigarettes, alcohol, cars and 
sweets. It is also affected by stricter regulation concerning marketing and soliciting practices.