Brazil: Country in "newspaper boom"

Posted by Rosemary D'Amour on December 12, 2008 at 10:10 AM

The rise in "purchasing power" of the Brazilian middle class, or Class C, has led to a newspaper "boom" in the country, Huffington Post is reporting.

Although Brazilians still buy fewer papers compared with Americans, per capita, as incomes and literacy rates rise, Brazil is catching up in its newspaper markets.

Advertisers target Class C, which has grown to 54% of the population from 33% five years ago. Cheaper newspapers (selling for the American equivalent of a dime) are rising in distribution, as well as "popular" titles that rely on sports, crime and photos, as a result of the population explosion, Huffington Post reports. Free papers are also "huge" in the country.

The "upper" classes of Class A and B, are also targeted with specific ads for luxury items. The three national newspapers also have a strong subscriber base in the upper classes.

"After the early part of the decade, newspapers started growing both in circulation and revenue," said Salles Neto, president of Grupo M&M, which publishes marketing study Meio e Mensagem. "The reason: improving distribution of wealth."

The Instituto Verificado de Circulacao, a bureau that monitors circulation, reports that thus far in 2008, Brazilians have bought 24% more newspapers than the same period in 2006.

Advertising in Brazilian newspapers has gone up every year since 2001, according to Meios e Mensagem. Revenue was up 15% for the first three-quarters of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007, contrasting with the 18% drop in ad revenue in the US.

The middle class has greater access to the news and is now reading the news and buying the paper, said Marcello Moraes, executive director for circulation at Rio de Janeiro's O Globo. The reach extends beyond Brazil's major cities, as smaller papers have also increased in circulation and revenue.

Source: Huffington Post