The scenario in the entire news paper and magazine world
is as exciting as it is fast changing. While reports of
shrinking sales of the print media are already haunting
the newspaper magnates in the US, the latter are making
all efforts to bring about a turnaround. The process naturally
involves modifications to the marketing strategies and induction
of the latest technology in newspaper and magazine production.
In fact, this is the trend in other parts of the world as
well; with of course, minor modifications. The intense competition
among publishing companies in several countries of Asia
and Europe is assuming alarming proportions. At the same
time, efforts at coordination are also under way in a bid
to take on the challenges posed by the electronic media.
The print media in Asia is, however, doing well in terms
of circulation, sales and readership. Seven out of 10 of
the largest circulation newspapers in the world are published
in Asia. Also, 62 of the top 100 titles are published in
China, Japan and India. China and India occupy the top slots
among the five largest newspaper markets in the world -
China with 96.6 million copies sold everyday and India with
78.7 million copies. Japan, the US, and Germany come out
as the third, fourth and fifth on the list with the figures
69.7 million, 53.3 million, and 21.5 million. While the
circulation in China and India has been increasing, those
in Japan, the US, and Germany have generally been on the
decline.
New business models aimed at satisfying readers, advertisers
and vendors are now being developed and adopted by most
publishers. The combination of daily newspapers and daily
magazines into a single product is one such example. A new
Austrian newspaper Österreich (Exhibit 1), under the
leadership of its publisher Wolfgang Fellner, is now adopting
this method. A combination of daily newspaper and daily
magazines has both hard core news coverage and lighter features.
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