World Newspapers

In terms of daily circulation China tops the list of world newspapers with a circulation of 93.5 million copies a day; India comes in second with 78.8 million readers, followed by Japan, with 70.4 million, the United States, with 48.3 million, and Germany with 22.1 million.

Around 75 of the 100 best selling newspapers are in Asia and seven out of top ten are Japanese.

The top ten newspapers in the world according to circulation (in thousands) in 2009 were:

1 Yomiuri Shimbun Japan 14,067 Japanese
2 Asahi Shimbun Japan 12,121 Japanese
3 Mainichi Shimbun Japan 5,587 Japanese
4 Nihon Keizai Shimbun Japan 4,635 Japanese
5 Chunichi Shimbun Japan 4,512 Japanese
6 Bild Germany 3,548 German
7 Reference News China 3,183 Chinese
8 The Times of India India 3,146 English
9 The Sun United Kingdom 2,986 English
10 People's Daily China 2,808 Chinese

Top U.S. Newspapers

By comparison, The New York Times ranks 46th in world circulation. In the United States the top 10 newspapers in terms of circulation in 2009 were:

1 Wall Street Journal, 2,024,269, News Corporation
2 USA Today, 1, 900,116, Gannett Company
3 New York Times, 927,851, The New York Times Company
4 Los Angeles Times, 657,467, Tribune Company
5 Washington Post, 582,844, The Washington Post Company
6 Daily News, (New York) 544,167, Daily News
7 New York Post, 508,042, News Corporation
8 Chicago Tribune, 465,892, Tribune Company
9 Houston Chronicle, 384,419, Hearst Corporation
10 Philadelphia Inquirer / Philadelphia Daily News, 361,480, Philadelphia Media Holdings

Canadian Newspapers

You will note that among the top five Canadian newspapers two are French. As in the case of U.S. newspapers the circulation of most Canadian newspapers has dropped appreciably in the last decade.

1 Toronto Star 2,349,760
2 The Globe and Mail 1,996,582
3 Le Journal de Montréal 1,577,987
4 La Presse 1,504,674
5 National Post 1,182,206

Worldwide Newspaper Chains

The expansion of newspaper chains -- i.e., ownership of a number of newspapers by a single company -- has also increased worldwide.

In Canada, about 70 percent of the total circulation is owned by five large corporations, four of which operate internationally. Only six cities in Canada are served by two or more independently owned newspapers.

In the United States, where chains own most of the large city newspapers, there is also significant international control.

The largest newspaper chain in the United States is Gannett Co., which owns some 90 newspapers with a circulation totaling more than 7 million worldwide. Hollinger International owns 105 daily newspapers in the U.S.

The Internet

Electronic newspapers (on-line versions of city newspapers), which started in the late 1990s, have expanded to the point that now thousands of the world's newspapers are now on the Internet. In North America there are more than 1,200 newspapers online. Many of these are similar to newsprint versions. Most are free; however, almost all carry advertising.

Publishing on-line saves the publishers two of their biggest expenses: newsprint and distribution costs.

Although on-line articles are not as in-depth at the print version, the latter generally include videos, sound files, hyperlinks and interactive graphics. Another advantage for the on-line versions is that they can be constantly updated, which means that they can break and update stories much in advance of the newsprint versions.

The percentage of Americans getting news from the Internet at least once a week has more than quadrupled since 1996. Newspapers such as the New York Times and USA Today send free daily e-mail news summaries to anyone who wishes to sign up.

The Wall Street Journal charges of on-line access and in 2010 The Los Angeles Times announced they were going to charge frequent users of their on-line version.

In the next chapter we'll look at the current status of newspapers in the United States.