Having become interested in the newspaper market because of Nexpo and the article in the IHT by Katherine Seclye, we took a look at some of the market differences between the Japan and the U.S. markets.  From Tokyo to Kyoto and Osaka, we had noticed a great number of different newspapers for sale in both Japanese and English.  Despite the emergence of the internet, it seems that Japanese still read their newspapers on a regular basis.  Calculated as the number of copies read per 100,000 adults, Japan readers number 635 copies per thousand adults.  This is roughly 2.5 times the current U.S. average of 250 copies, a significant difference. 

Based upon the crowded metropolitan structure of Japan and the way in which most Japanese commute to work, this difference is attributed to the commute by public transportation that is still the major method of commuting in Japan.  (Japan has ½ the population of the U.S. living in an area about the size of CA, which itself has about 1/8th of the U.S. population.) While relying heavily on buses, subways, and trains for commuting and inter city travel, it is quite possible (easy) to comfortably read newspapers every day.  On the other hand, the theory is that it is impossible to read the newspaper while commuting by car in the U.S.  So, newspapers still thrive in the Japanese market, where they have been declining in readership in the U.S.

On the other end of the spectrum, Radio, a recent survey of people older than 12 in the U.S., 95% indicated that they still listen to the radio at least once per week.  Furthermore, the American Radio News Audience Survey reported that, "Considering that adults 18 to 64 listen to an average of three hours of radio per weekday, the current news listening estimates suggest that close to one-half of all radio listening involves news or talk." The fact is that many listen to radio while they commute alone in their cars to work, rather than reading a newspaper.  Talk and news shows have high ratings. So, radio is still a thriving advertising market in the U.S. and to the extent that newspaper owners also own radio stations, their revenue decline may not be as severe overall, as for those that solely own newspapers.