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

Table 2: Number of employees and annual average growth rate for the EU27 newspaper 
publishing industry
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Number of 
employees 
Annual average 
 growth rate in % 
1995 
2007 
1995-2007 
Publishing of newspapers 
358,716 
302.300 
-1.4 
Total EU economy 
226.604.600 
1.1 
Source: Eurostat. 
 
Table 3: Number of firms, annual average growth rate, average firm size and growth in firm size 
for the EU27 newspaper publishing industry 2007 
Number of 
firms 
Number of 
firms 
As share of 
total 
publishing 
in % 
Annual 
average 
growth 
rate 
between
Average 
firm size 
Annual 
average 
growth 
firm size, 
in % 
1995 2007 2007 
1995-2007 2007 
1995-2007 
Publishing 
news-
papers 
7,251 
9,006 
10.8 
1.8 
33.6 
-15.9 
Total 
publishing 
sector 
58,219 
83,472 
100 1.9 
 
10.7 -2.6 
Total EU 
economy 
16,175,213 20,865,302 
 
 2.1 
10.9 -1.4 
Source: Eurostat. 
 
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The number of employees does not take into account individual journalists working freelance: these are 
included in NACE category 92.31 rather than in category 22.1. 

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Statistical, Ecosystems and Competitiveness Analysis of the Media and Content Industries 
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In 2007, the newspaper publishing industry in the EU27 consisted of approximately 9,000 
companies that employed slightly more than 300,000 people, with an average firm size of 
33.6 employees. Between 1995 and 2007, the newspaper publishing sector witnessed an 
average annual growth of 1.8% in the number of firms. The average firm in 1995 had about 
125 employees, which declined between 1995 and 2007 to an average of almost 33.6 
employees in 2007. The data show a simultaneous annual average decline in the average firm 
size (-15.9%) and in the number of employees (-1.4%).
The small overall growth in the number of firms in combination with the decline in the total 
number of employees and the rather steep decline in the average firm size could indicate that 
especially the smaller firms survived as independent news paper publishers. Another 
explanation for these figures might be that some of the bigger newspaper publishers are no 
longer represented in these figures as they merged with multimedia companies that fall in a 
different statistical category. There are no more recent figures available in Eurostat, but given 
the economic crisis and the fact that many newspaper publishers needed to cut their costs, it is 
to be expected that the annual growth rate of the number of employees in 2011 is still 
negative. In the US for instance, between 2007 and 2009, approximately 12,000 journalists 
lost their jobs (Tucker, 2009) and between 2009 and 2010, an estimate of 17,588 jobs were 
lost in the newspaper sector in the US (Jensen, 2010).
Table 4 shows some variation between the different EU countries. A distinction is made 
between first two groups of EU Member States (EU6 and EU9, together EU15) and the new 
Member States that joined in 2004 and after. The differences between these groups of 
Member States express different stages in economic development and market maturity of the 
newspaper publishing industry. The assumption is that newspapers are a luxury good, of 
which consumption rises with growing economic wealth. This explains the growth visible in 
the new EU Member States, whose GDP and newspaper consumption are catching up. 
Another explanation could be that newspapers became more popular due to the liberalisation 
of the market, with less state control compared to the time of the communist regime.
In most of the old Member States the newspaper publishing market seems to be over its top 
and employment in the newspaper industry suffers from the shift from print to online news 
production and consumption, as well as possibly from a decline in readership amongst 
younger generations. Table 4 shows average annual growth rate in employment for different 
categories of EU member states. This table shows how employment numbers in the sector 
show decline in all European member states, except for the new accession countries, where 
employment increased with on average 1.2%. The largest average decline in employment is 
visible in the EU6; it decreased by 2.7% annually.