"Contrary to persistent predictions of the demise of newspapers, in truth, a surge of new daily newspapers has flooded markets worldwide in the past five years. The demand for new printing presses has never been greater. The demand of newsprint is up on every continent except North America," says the report, entitled, "New Print Products."

"New Print Products" is the first of six reports in the 2006/2007 series from SFN, which identifies, analyses and publicises all important breakthroughs and opportunities for newspapers all over the world. SFN, available exclusively to WAN members, provides strategy reports on these developments, a library of case studies and business ideas, and a wealth of other vital information for all those who need to follow press industry trends. More on the project, and an executive summary of the report, can be found at www.futureofthenewspaper.com.

The report shows there has been a quiet revolution in the number of daily launches. This burgeoning growth of daily titles worldwide has largely gone unnoticed by market makers and media pundits obsessed with the digital media revolution. Meanwhile the real-world growth of newspaper titles and circulations continue inexorably.

For example, the total number of paid-for newspapers grew by 1,179, and the number of free dailies grew by 109 titles, between 2001 and 2005. In 2005, the total number of paid-for daily newspaper titles worldwide jumped over the 10,000 mark for the first time in history, fueled by a steady 13 percent growth since 2001, when there were 8,930 paid-for dailies. Total free daily circulation worldwide has more than doubled from 2001 to 2005, from 12 million copies in 2001 to 28 million in 2005, an increase of 137 percent.

Three key trends are shaping the print newspaper landscape worldwide:

  A proliferation of new genres of newspapers targeting new audience segments and requiring creative marketing and distribution scenarios.

  The surge of new, free titles thrust into the paid-for market are the result of many publishers rethinking the cover-price revenue model in place for more than 400 years.

  The trend of the shrinking newspaper format, from broadsheet to tabloid, has challenged publishers to carefully plot out the transition and maximize new advertising prices and distribution strategies.

"Whilst the number of titles and total circulations are on the upswing, the era of the one-size-fits-most newspaper is on the decline in many parts of the world," says the report. "A new era is dawning, and it is about launching new, tailored newspapers for targeted groups to complement the general circulation papers. Unlike broadcasters, newspapers see fragmentation as an opportunity to aggregate new audiences, improve their relevance to existing readers and provide attractive markets to advertisers."

The SFN reports are available exclusively to WAN members. To learn about the benefits of company membership in WAN, go to www.wan-press.org/membership.

WAN conducts the SFN project with support from five international partners -- PubliGroupe, the Swiss-based international advertising and promotion group; MAN Roland, a leading company for newspaper production systems; UPM-Kymmene, one of the world’s leading printing paper producers; Telenor, the leading Norwegian telecommunications, IT and media group; and Samsung Electronics, a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, and digital convergence technology.

The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 76 national newspaper associations, newspaper companies and individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 10 regional and world-wide press groups.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr.