China: Print starting to lose ground to the internet

Posted by Kelley Vendeland on April 1, 2008 at 12:22 PM

China is the latest country to confront the erosion of print in favor of the web.

Internet users in China are traditionally a strong print and broadcast audience as well. However, although net-users currently outnumber non-net users in traditional media use, a November 2007 report from The Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that the situation is likely to change in the next two years, reports Poynter blogger Fons Tuinstra.

According to the report, the number of newspaper readers and TV watchers has dropped about 10% since 2005, while the penetration rate of the internet has jumped to 66.1%.

China's print sector is not yet suffering major losses, but as Tuinstra explains, "the shrinking support of traditional media from Chinese net users is causing traditional media organizations there to lose ground fast."

Source: E-Media Tidbits