Strong readership for daily and Sunday newspapers in New Zealand shows the power of the press remains. Newspaper Publishers' Association chief executive Tim Pankhurst said the Nielsen media research figures released yesterday reported readership was up 14,000 per day across the five metropolitan dailies. ``This proves the power of print is undiminisheddespite the recession and ill-informed predictions of the demise of newspapers,' Mr Pankhurst said. When regional newspapers were added, total average daily readership was up slightly on the previous year by 1000 to 1,624,000. That represented 48.1 per cent of the population aged 15 years-plus. ``There is no denying advertising is down and all sectors of the media are feeling that, but this is a strong, positive result that will give confidence that newspapers still deliver,' he said. ``Once you add online audiences from associated newspaper sites, the reach is bigger than ever.' Similar results have been recorded worldwide, with circulations growing 1.3 per cent in 2008. World Association of Newspapers president Gavin O'Reilly said: ``The simple fact is that, as a global industry, our printed audience continues to grow. ``Predicting the death of newspapers seems to have reached the level of a new sport.' Mr O'Reilly, also chief executive of Independent News and Media, said that doom and gloom had largely gone unanswered and was ``the most bizarre case of wilful self-mutilation ever in the annals of industry'. He said it was wrong to chorus that the future was online, online, online. Print media still took 37 per cent of world advertising revenues. His statistics included: 1.9 billion people read a bought daily newspaper every day. Newspapers reached 41 per cent more adults than the worldwide web. More adults read a newspaper every day than people ate a Big Mac every year.
