Newspapers thriving? Yes – in Asia.

Seven of the 10 bestselling dailies are in Asia, a result of rising incomes and literacy levels.

from the January 24, 2008 edition

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Still, having escaped government shackles, news outlets in young democracies are also grappling with marketplace demands. As the field gets more crowded, and cable news and online sites create a faster news cycle, some newspaper proprietors push celebrity stories over serious news, say editors.

India's rapid media expansion since 2001 has coincided with a shift by some broadsheet newspapers to more "feel-good" news and cricket coverage, says Nanda Banerjee, a consulting editor for the Indian Press Agency. "The serious part of journalism is taking a back seat. The entertainment journalism is at the front," he says.

Chinese newspapers face different challenges, such as state censors. China boasts the highest number of newspapers sold (99 million daily in 2006) but also the most journalists in jail (31 at the end of 2006), the Committee to Protect Journalists reports. Publications that offend can be closed down. Censorship is pervasive on the Internet.

The picture in China isn't totally gloomy, says Ms. Coronel, a reporter from the Philippines. By cutting subsidies to state-owned newspapers, China has forced them to compete for readers. This has created an appetite for scoops and bolder reporting. "Chinese media is doing more original and investigative reporting. The market does create opportunities for watchdog journalism, as it did in early-20th-century America," says Coronel.

Citizen journalism is growing rapidly in South Korea, among the world's most wired countries. Ohmynews is a prominent website that draws on the reporting of 40,000 journalists and generates enough advertising to turn a profit, says Ryong Oh of the Asia Journalist Association, a nonprofit in Seoul. One reason South Koreans are turning to Ohmynews is that the country's three dominant newspapers are politically timid, says Mr. Oh. "As the government changes, they change their positions. People distrust these newspapers, so they search for new media sources." Still, newspaper circulation in South Korea rose 19 percent between 2001 and 2006.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in Asia is Japan's enduring newspaper culture. Circulation has declined in recent years, but Japanese remain the world's leading per-capita consumers of newsprint. Ownership rules in Japan shield newspapers from shareholder pressure, allowing them to invest in the newsroom, says Orville Schell, former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California. This contrasts with US newspaper groups that face cutbacks if they don't meet growth targets.

But, as in the US, the writing may be on the wall for Japanese news outlets without an online strategy, says Hisayoshi Ina, vice chairman of the editorial board at Nikkei, a newspaper. "The younger generation don't have the habit to read the newspaper. They prefer the Internet to paper," he says.

Newspapers’ worldwide growth

Of the world’s 100 bestselling dailies, 70 percent are published in Asia. Sixty of them are in China, Japan, and India.

• The five biggest markets for newspapers are: China (98.7 million copies sold daily), India (88.9 million), Japan (69.1 million), the US (52.3 million), and Germany (21.1 million).

• From 2005 to 2006, circulation sales rose 3.61 percent in Asia, 4.55 percent in South America, 0.74 percent in Europe, and 0.65 percent in Africa. In North America, they fell 1.97 percent.

SOURCE: World Association of Newspapers

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