The 0.8 per cent decline in global newspaper circulation figures from 2008 to 2009 is the first in the history of the report, which looks at data from 233 countries that publish newspapers, said World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) CEO Christoph Reiss.
Presenting the report at the World Editors Forum in Hamburg, Reiss said that there has been continuous growth in circulation for the last five years, nearly 6 per cent over this period. The figures were debuted earlier this year at the WAN-IFRA conference in Kuala Lumpur.
But the decline isn't universal, developed markets such as Europe and North America have been hit hardest with a 13.9 per cent and 4.9 per cent year-on-year drop in newspaper circulation respectively.
Reiss said the drop should be viewed in context with other industries such as consumer goods and financial services which are showing similar charts for growth.
The report also suggests a severe decline in the circulation of paid for daily newspapers in Europe and North America in 2009 falling by 5.64 per cent and 3.43 per cent respectively. These titles' circulation has decreased by 10.62 per cent over the past five years in North America and by 7.92 per cent in Europe.
But the number of paid-for daily titles globally increased in 2009 by 1.7 per cent to 12,477 and by 11.7 per cent over five years, according to the research.
More positive trends can be seen in the growth in circulation of non-daily newspapers globally, said Reiss. Paid-for non dailies' circulation globally has increased by 18.4 per cent over five years and 2.5 per cent year-on-year in 2009.
Europe is more dynamic in Asia on this trend, said Reiss, with the research suggesting a 23 per cent increase in paid-for non daily newspaper circulation over the last five years. There were 33,027 of these titles in Europe in 2009, mainly thanks to Russia, he added.
"What is the trend? It shows go local, go hyperlocal. It shows the effort to develop more targeted, more local newspapers," he said.
Russia features prominently elsewhere in the report, which says that 67 of the top 100 paid-for daily newspapers by circulation are Russian. Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun comes out top with a circulation of 10,019,000.
In Japan, newspapers reach 91.5 per cent of the population - second only to Iceland, where penetration is 96 per cent. Norway (82 per cent), Sweden (82 per cent) and Switzerland (81.7 per cent) are close behind.
Reiss was keen to stress the power of newspapers in terms of reach and advertising strength, referencing recent studies by the Outdoor Advertising Association and Microsoft that suggested a £5 return for every £1 spent in newspaper advertising.
"It will be in the future that whatever form the newspaper takes (...) even if it's a digital newspaper, this will be and remain the dominant media force in the world," he said.
"The internet will overtake the newspaper advertising revenue in the coming years, in 1-5 years. However we shouldn't forget one important aspect and that's the power of print advertising."
Internet advertising revenues will never be enough to support the future of the news business, instead newspapers must look to their content to generate revenue, he said.
But newspaper groups must look to questions of infrastructure to determine future business models, he said. There are opportunities in mobile and publishers must assess the levels of internet penetration versus mobile penetration in their countries as part of digital development plans, he added.
"[The internet] has an established ad model, but users will not, so far, pay for content. Search engines dominate. Mobile has lots of them [users] and they are happy to pay for content, but no ads, please."
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