Decline in newspapers not linked to internet

London: British newspapers are too dependent on advertising according to a new book edited by academics at Oxford University.

This imbalance is the main reason for a spate of closures and mass redundancies at publishing groups in recent years, they argue.

The book challenges the conventional wisdom that the internet has undermined business models by claiming there is no correlation between internet usage and newspaper profitability.

The work, commissioned by the Oxford-based Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, examined newspaper industries in several countries, including the US, UK, Germany and Brazil.

In many countries where online activity is high, newspapers are still faring well, with titles typically generating 50 per cent of revenues from advertising. In the UK and the US, where advertising accounts for a larger proportion of revenues, the picture is far gloomier, but that could be explained by a cyclical advertising recession, the study suggests.

The book, The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy, is co-edited by RISJ director Dr David Levy.