(Michael P. Smith)

Not sounding defensive at all, World Association of Newspapers President Gavin O’Reilly dismisses the doomsayers predicting the death of newspapers. He says the industry had seldom been in a better position globally.

With that as the setup, WAN CEO Timothy Balding presented the annual report on newspaper circulation and advertising around the world.

The headlines: Newspaper circulations world-wide rose 2.3 percent in 2006 while newspaper advertising revenues showed substantial gains. Globally newspapers are second in advertising only to television.

The reality of the numbers is that in mature countries, circulation of paid dailies is flat or falling. But factor in the free dailies and the boom in countries like India and China, and the picture looks pretty good.

We are the laggards. Newspaper sales increased year-on-year in Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, with North America the sole continent to register a decline.

The WAN report:

• When free dailies are added to the paid newspaper circulation, global circulation increased 4.61 percent last year, and 14.76 percent over the past five years. Free dailies now account for nearly 8 percent of all global newspaper circulation and 31.94 percent in Europe alone.

• Advertising revenues in paid dailies were up 3.77 percent last year from a year earlier, and up 15.77 percent over five years.

• More than 515 million people buy a newspaper every day, up from 488 million in 2002.

• Average readership is estimated to be more than 1.4 billion people each day.

• Seven of 10 of the world's 100 best selling dailies are now published in Asia. China, Japan and India account for 60 of them.

• The five largest markets for newspapers are: China, with 98.7 million copies sold daily; India, with 88.9 million copies daily; Japan, with 69.1 million copies daily; the United States, with 52.3 million; and Germany, 21.1 million.

For more information, go to the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) website.