PARIS: Newspapers in developed countries are in slow decline and must concentrate on being useful to readers and advertisers rather than on filling their pages with politics, says a report.

While noting that the trend of declining sales matches the rise of television, the report by the Academy of Moral and Political Science, part of the Institute of France, said that sales and profits varied sharply depending on the state of the economy and on news such as the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Even in the United States, which has the most dynamic newspapers, readership of daily newspapers had declined for 20 years, and by one per cent per year for 10 years.

The 116-page report, directed by former AFP president Henri Pigeat and Jacques Leprette, found that: “People are reading fewer and fewer newspapers, in France, as in most countries. The political press is dying. Television has become the main media.

But the Internet was less of a competitor than an opportunity to increase revenue from news.

Daily newspapers have to be close to their readers while concentrating on three economic imperatives, it suggested:

* Justify themselves in the market place and not be under state or semi-state control;

* Provide services and advantages, in terms of content, distribution and price, which satisfy readers and separately advertisers;

* Separate editorial matters from commercial interests to ensure credibility while ensuring that the editorial content attracts readers of use to the advertiser.

The so-called “popular” (tabloid) type of newspaper was declining, although circulations in Britain and Germany, for example, remained in the millions while in France they had fallen into hundreds of thousands. Popular newspapers drew much of their readership from young people who, in general, preferred television to newspapers.

A chapter on daily newspapers in the United States said the number of titles and sales had diminished for 20 years and that newspapers were increasingly reliant on advertising revenue.

However, they adopted new ideas, monitored closely the needs of readers and advertisers, and maintained efficient distribution.

Noting cultural differences, the report asked why the Swiss and Norwegians prefer to subscribe for a year rather than buy daily, why the British read newspapers while commuting and the French read books; and why the British and Americans spend much of their Sundays reading newspapers, a role filled in France by weekly news magazines, although the Sunday market was the only one to grow.

The Japanese were special because they liked to receive standard information from different newspapers, part of the process of sharing in group culture which did not demand diversification of the press.

Quoting from a report for the World Bank, the study said state ownership of the media, strongest in Africa and the Middle East, occurred in countries with the poorest scores for civil rights, good administration, developed markets and health and education services.

Tables in the report showed that of 26 countries, Japan had the lowest number of daily newspapers per million inhabitants at one title per million, compared for example with 2.2 in the United Kingdom, 5.6 in Germany, 6.9 in the United States, 13 in Sweden and Finland and 23 in Norway.

The data from various sources including the World Association of Newspapers showed that the number of newspapers sold per 100 adults was lowest at eight in Greece, 18 in France, 20 in Ireland, 25 in New Zealand, 35 in Germany, 68 in Japan, and highest at 72 in Norway.—AFP