At ad-ition, we watch the newspaper industry not just from a North American perspective, but from a global perspective.  Even though our posts are heavily focused on American and Canadian industries, because of proximity, our goal is  to look at trends internationally – hence today’s post on the newspaper industry in Asia.

The story of abysmal newspaper circulation and revenue results here in North America, although our current reality, has been played beyond belief and has become  old hat.  Newspapers have either closed down all together, undergone huge layoffs, lessened the days of newspaper circulation, or have given up on print and gone fully digital online.  We have even seen newspapers give up their coveted front page to run larger advertisements in hope of charging premium dollars to stop the revenue bleed.  But as we look around the globe, the story, in most cases, is not as grim.  Even in Europe, with the concerns around the EU, we are still expecting to see a 2.2% growth for the newspaper sector, come the close of 2010.  It is Asia however that those in the industry most dazzled.  How have they ensured a strong newsprint society that is still growing, for so long?

The Asian market has been seen as a jewel of uncharted waters for many, because of its population, buying power, and consumer loyalty.  But it is that very same loyalty, in our minds that makes it difficult for outsiders to succeed in Asia or to replicate the scribed successes in another country or continent.

When looking at the Asian market, unlike many others, we see that their sense of loyalty coupled with their sense of culture and tradition has a lot to do with why newspapers in Japan and China, are not feeling the effects of  what some have called ‘the global demise of the printed news’.  Cheng Ming-yan, the chief editor at Apple, the leading tabloid newspaper in China, put it nicely when he said  ”Chinese people are eager to get information from newspapers because, traditionally, that was the way their mother and father spent their leisure time,”.  The obvious love of consuming the printed news is also why Asia has seen a 2.7 per cent increase in print titles this past year, which is way above the norm.  Today, in Hong Kong, newspapers reach almost 80 per cent of adults, in a city of seven million, and its two biggest-selling papers have a daily readership above 1.2 million, according to the World Press Trends 2010 report,  produced by the WAN-IFRA newspaper association.

In most cases where we see an area not hit by the power of online journalism, blogs and social media tools now used to garner news updates, we surmise that they will feel an impact soon, if going according to trends, but we do not see this happening in Asia.  At the most, Asia’s paid for news titles, will continue to feel the revenue impact of free circulation papers, but online will not be the defining culprit.

Although the online sales, auctions and classified footprint is not exactly like newsprint, it is an area that North American newspaper publishers dabble in and face heavy competition from online competitors such as eBay, and as e-shopping is popular here in North America, it is just as popular in the Asian market.  Given the poulation and consumer trends, players such as eBay have also tried to break into the Asian market with no success. At the point of eBay closing its Japanese site, it had only mustered a 3 per cent market share, this in contrast to it’s North American strength .  eBay later learned its lesson and continued its presence elsewhere in Asia  through buying strong local brands, including its purchase of China’s EachNet for $150 million in 2003.

All in all, the Asian newspaper market looks strong, whether reviewing paid or unpaid titles, and we’ve made assumptions that online journalism will not make the jeorpordous impact as we have seen in other areas.  It must be said though that the future for Asian newspapers could go either way, if one takes into consideration that  the Internet penetration rate for Asia is almost 17 per cent lower than the world average. You have to ask yourself; should Internet adoption rates reach the world average, would Asia be in the same situation that so many North American titles have found themselves in.

Interesting facts about the Asian newspaper market:

• The five largest markets for newspapers are: India, with 110 million copies sold daily, China, with 109 million sold daily, Japan (50 million), United States (46 million), and Germany (20 million).
• Sixty-seven of the world’s 100 largest daily newspapers are Asian.
• Global paid-for daily newspaper circulation fell -0.8 per cent in 2009 from a year earlier, to 517 million copies sold, but circulation was up +1 per cent in Asia
• Over five years, global paid-for daily newspaper circulation rose +5.7%. It was up +13% in Asia, and down -10.6% in North America.

Stats taken from Wan-Ifran.org