It is predicted that an increasing population would make readership rise by 2020, according to the RI. However, some have an alternate view of the situation.

"Whenever there's been a business risk, newspapers changed while continuing to be newspapers. Now they will have to transform into something else, but they'll have to take the values of newspapers in this new direction," said Rosental Calmon Alves, an ex- editor in Rio de Janeiro who holds a Knight chair at the University of Texas.

Around ten years ago, a number of bigger publications, such as O Globo and Folha de Sao Paolo, were experiencing economic difficulties and instead of deteriorating they innovated.

O Globo made itself more "engaging" and "useful" by collecting information from readers, and the parent paper InfoGlobo decided to create the "colorful", "popular" paper Extra.

In 2003, Folha de Sao Paolo chose to keep classifieds in print and put an emphasis on their size, deciding that bigger is better. A number of cheap commercials with a rat caused for classifieds to grow, writes the RI. As a result, Big Folha emerged.

The sports daily Lance! is also experiencing some success. It provides users with 15 hours of sports programs on its website and has a "colorful" and "vibrant" print edition.

The Brazilian Audit Bureau of Circulation (IVC) shows that circulation has been rising year over year, growing 11.8% over 2006 and 6.5% the year before. The average circulation per day is thought to be over eight million copies.

Last year, advertising sales for newspapers surged by 15.2% since 2006, accounting for 16.4% of Brazil's advertising revenues.

Brazil has around 3,000 newspapers, out of which 500 are dailies, reports the country's association of newspapers, the Associação Nacional de Jornais.

Source: The Readership Institute through IFRA Executive News Service