DUBLIN, June 10: The Japanese are the world’s leading newspaper buyers and China holds the world daily circulation record of 82 million, followed by Japan, India and the United States, a report said Monday.

The report by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) said the Japanese and Norwegians remained the biggest buyers of newspapers, followed by the Finns, Swedes and Swiss.

China held the world circulation record with 82 million newspapers sold daily, followed by Japan with 70.8 million, India with 57.84 million and the United States with 55.18 million, it said.

The report to the 56th world newspaper congress said the world press had a hard time of it last year with a global decline in circulation, advertising revenue and newspaper share of advertising investment.

“Despite ferocious competition in the information and advertising market places, newspapers continue to hold their own in a very difficult market,” said WAN Director-General Timothy Balding.

“Newspapers continue to perform well and continue to be major players on the media landscape,” he told the gathering here.

But he added: “The global circulation of newspapers was down in 2002 for the first time in at least five years, as growth in developing markets failed to exceed or even match the continued slow decline of sales in mature markets.

Newspaper advertising revenue had dipped for the second time in a row, but this time by only half a percentage point, much less than the five percent of 2001.

The WAN report, covering 80 countries, said newspapers’ use of the Internet had been much stronger than expected.

Newspaper circulation had risen in 28 percent of countries covered, and over a five-year period covering 1998-2002 it had risen by 35 percent.

But within the European Union, circulation had declined in 11 of the 15 member states, the worst hit being France with a 3.9 percent reduction. Circulation was down by 2.5 percent in Germany but by only 0.1 percent in Britain.

In the United States, daily circulation remained fairly stable last year but fell slightly by 1.8 percent over the 1998-2002 period, the report said.

Circulation dipped by 1.2 percent in Japan last year.—AFP