Newspaper circulations are coming under increasing pressure worldwide, but the Republic is one of the few countries which has managed to produce rising sales and advertising revenue in the last five years, a report has found.
Newspapers are losing advertising revenue, it says, because advertisers have other options with media like the Internet, mobile phones and television/radio.
However, the report strikes a hopeful note: "Newspapers are innovating too, developing new products and special sections and refining their editorial content and design, to capture new readers and provide a platform for specialist advertisers."
The report on World Trends in the Newspaper Industry was circulated to the media and delegates at the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) conference in Dublin.
The report specifically mentions the Irish newspaper industry's performance as being almost unique in the EU.
"The strength of the Irish performance, with a 6 per cent sales increase since 1998, clearly reflects the general boom in the Irish economy in recent years and doubtless also the increased competition between titles there."
Compiled by Mr Timothy Balding, director-general of WAN, it shows that newspaper circulations are under increasing pressure, not in developing regions, but in the most industrialised parts of the world.
The report says that Europe, Japan and the US accounted for virtually all of the circulation declines in 2002.
Leaving these regions out, newspaper circulations worldwide rose over the last five years by 15.3 per cent.
The report says the "extraordinarily competitive environments for news and information" and the "growing number of options available to consumers" in these regions are the main reasons for lower circulations.
"Whilst many countries can still demonstrate an improvement in advertising over five years, few can report success in both advertising and circulation.
"Ireland, China and India are notable exceptions, with gains in both areas," says the report.
While 2002 was a challenging year, says the report, gains were made.
"Despite the difficulties in developed markets, a significant number of countries reported increases in circulation, with Sundays again performing better than other types of publication".
The report says newspapers continue to grapple with the problem of attracting younger readers, with Portugal, Spain, Malaysia, Italy and Brazil performing well in attracting younger age groups.
The Republic does not perform notably well in this category, although other countries have a worse record.
The report also notes a potentially significant recovery in circulation among US newspapers. "The circulation of dailies in the USA declined only slightly last year, by 0.7 per cent, an identical figure to the previous year. These are the lowest annual declines since we began this survey more than ten years ago. This may indicate that circulations in the US are stabilising.
"That is really quite an achievement if we consider just how intensive media competition is in the States and the declines in circulations during the 1990s," the report adds.
The report provides an insight into newspaper consumption around the world, with Scandinavian countries leading the way. Sweden had the highest newspaper reach in 2002 with 88 per cent reading a newspaper on a regular basis, followed by Singapore, with 82 per cent and Norway and Finland, with 86 per cent.
The report says newspaper reading is closely linked with wealth and that is why Norway, Japan and Sweden "with high incomes" have such high newspaper penetration.