India is now the world’s fastest-growing newspaper market

The Economist
In a special report on the news industry, The Economist sizes up the newspaper business worldwide and notes that not all newspapers are in crisis like those in the U.S. The hottest newspaper market is India, which overtook China three years ago to become the leader in paid circulation with 110 million copies sold each day, the Economist reports, using World Association of Newspapers figures. “Between 2005 and 2009 the number of paid-for daily newspapers in [India] increased by 44% to 2,700 and the total number of newspapers rose by 23% to more than 74,000, according to the WAN.” An accompanying graphic shows that the countries with the highest Facebook and Twitter penetration generally are the ones in which newspaper circulation is declining. Japanese circulation has held up well, according to The Economist, but “young Japanese do not share their elders’ enthusiasm for newsprint.”