Newspapers: Very Much Alive

I still read my morning newspaper. In fact, I read three newspapers everyday. One in the morning (before my three-year-old gets up) and another two when I get back from work. Since, I don’t have a TV at home, Newspapers are my main source of news and information.

And now The Economist (a magazine that calls itself a newspaper :)) announces the impending demise of newspapers in its latest issue. The article claims "the business of selling words to readers and selling readers to advertisers, which has sustained their role in society, is falling apart." Newspapers that haven't already migrated to the Web will either do so or disappear, the magazine predicts. It notes that print circulation has been plunging in America, Western Europe, Latin American, Australia and New Zealand for decades, although print newspaper sales have curiously been rising in other parts of the world.
Does that include India? Surprisingly yes!

Consider this: Yesterday, I got the press release announcing an agreement between Wall Street Journal and HT Media Limited under which HT Media's soon-to-be-launched business newspaper and Web site will publish Wall Street Journal branded pages that will contain business and business of life news and information from the Journal, WSJ.com and Marketwatch.com. This news follows HT Media's recently disclosed plans to launch a national business newspaper in India, written and edited for global Indian business readers and international business travelers.

And according to World Association of Newspapers (WAN), in 2005, China had the world's largest newspaper circulation with 93.5 million a day, India came second with 78.8 million, followed by Japan, with 70.4 million; the United States, with 48.3 million; and Germany, with 22.1 million.