How Australia Compares

Newspapers

While, after Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, the book has the claim to be the first mass medium, it was the newspaper which from the 18th century on became central to political life and to the development of democracy. In the 21st century, at least in the English-speaking democracies, there is great pessimism about its future.

This pessimism is only partly borne out by the circulation figures in Table 13.1. They show that, overall, the penetration of daily newspapers, measured by sales per 1000 population, declined in the 27 years between 1980 and 2007 by just over 10%, from 342 to 302 – a substantial decline but not necessarily catastrophic. Moreover, in four of the countries, the penetration of newspapers increased, including in the top two countries, Japan and Norway. While the rankings have remained broadly constant, the range in circulations has become even greater, with circulation holding up relatively well in the top countries, while in the traditionally low newspaper reading countries, such as Italy, France and Belgium, circulation has declined even further. By 2007, Japan had five times the relative newspaper circulation of Italy.

The decline was greatest among the English-speaking countries, and sharpest of all in Australia. Australian newspaper penetration almost halved in these 27 years, down from 323 per 1000 to 166, putting Australia firmly in the bottom quarter of the selected countries. The primary reason for Australia having such a precipitate decline was the closing of titles.