Report: Newspapers Doing Better In The East

Like the sun, newspaper circulation rises in the East and falls in the West.

 The Economist reports the World Press Trends Report collects masses of data about newspaper circulation and revenues in over 70 countries. The headline figure shows circulation falling modestly from 537m in 2008 to 530m in 2012, but that masks huge regional variations.

Since 2008 circulation in America has fallen by 15% to 41m while advertising revenue has plummeted by 42%, accounting for three-quarters of the global decline in advertising revenue in the same period.

And revenues from digital sources such as websites, apps and so on have not made up the shortfall.

Looking further east, though, things look brighter. Circulation in Asia has risen by 10%, offsetting much of the decline elsewhere. With 114.5m daily newspapers, China has surpassed India to become the world's biggest newspaper market.

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