SEOUL, May 30: Worldwide newspaper sales edged up by more than two per cent last year while advertising revenue recorded significant gains, the World Association of Newspapers said on Monday. In its report on trends in the newspaper industry, the WAN said 395 million copies of newspapers were sold daily last year and read by an estimated one billion people worldwide.

China, India and Japan were the world’s biggest newspaper markets and China overtook Japan as the country with the highest number of publications in the world. Three-quarters of the world’s 100 best selling daily newspapers were now published in Asia, where sales were up 4.1 per cent for the year.

The figures, from WAN’s annual survey of press trends, were released to more than 1,300 publishers, editors and other senior newspaper executives from 81 countries attending the World Newspaper Congress and the World Editors Forum, Asia’s biggest ever media gathering, which opened here Monday.

Worldwide newspaper circulation grew 2.1 per cent, the number of daily titles was up two per cent and advertising revenue rose 5.3 per cent, its biggest jump in four years, the WAN report said.

“It has been an extraordinarily positive 12 months for the global newspaper industry,” said Timothy Balding, director general of the Paris-based WAN. Despite a tough business environment the advertising pie had expanded, generating more revenue for newspapers, even though the portion of the pie going to the print media was gradually eroding, from 30.5 per cent in 2003 to 30.1 per cent in 2004.

While revenue was up, newspapers continued to lose readers in many traditional strongholds, including Europe. But Mr Balding said reports of the demise of print newspapers with the advent of the Internet and digital media were premature.—AFP