Just Published: World Digital Media Trends

The digital platforms of newspaper companies are growing at double-digit rates world-wide, both in usage and revenue production, according to the World Digital Media Trends report unveiled at the World Newspaper Congress by the World Association of Newspapers.

The second annual report, which examines digital media advertising and usage trends and their impact on newspaper companies, showed:

- Digital and mobile advertising revenues are projected to grow to more than 150 billion dollars by 2011, a 12-fold growth from 2002.

- Wireless subscriptions continue to grow, from 1.1 billion in 2002 to a projected 3.4 billion in 2011, an expansion of more than three-fold.

- Broadband is expected to grow from 51.38 million households world-wide in 2002 to nearly 540 million households in 2011, a growth of more than ten-fold.

- The mobile customer base has grown from 945 million in 2001 to 2.6 billion in 2006.

The report includes studies from 71 research partners about digital usage and revenue patterns, and provides a map of "digital hot spots" where mobile and internet delivery are developing particularly rapidly. It also includes case studies of newspaper companies whose digital strategies are increasing revenue and audiences.

Full details of World Digital Media Trends, including excerpts, can be found at http://www.wan-press.org/worlddigitalmediatrends

World Digital Media Trends is published by the WAN Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project, which identifies, analyses and publicises all important breakthroughs and opportunities that can benefit newspapers all over the world. More on the SFN project can be found at http://www.futureofthenewspaper.com

The report was unveiled at the World Newspaper Conference, during a review of the SFN's 2007-2008 research reports. Other reports in the 2007-2008 series include: Envisioning the Newspaper 2020, Engaging Young Readers, Investing in Newspapers, The Value of News Content, Scenario Planning for Newspaper Companies, and Benchmarking New Digital Revenues.

All SFN reports, with the exception of World Digital Media Trends, are available exclusively to WAN members. More on the benefits of WAN membership can be found at http://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 Atex, the leading supplier of solutions and services for advertising, content management, circulation and online applications.

The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom and the professional and business interests of newspapers world-wide. Representing 18,000 newspapers, its membership includes 77 national newspaper associations, newspaper companies and individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 11 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