Seoul - In the face of stiff competition from TV and the
internet, South Korean newspaper readership is falling, the Korea
Press Foundation (KPF) said Monday.
Only three to four people in every ten surveyed said they were
newspaper subscribers, the media watchdog said.
KPF said it conducted the survey in one-to-one interviews with
5,000 adults between May 3 and June 9.
KPF added that in 1996, seven in ten people reported they were
regular newspaper readers.
KPF mentions the shift from print to internet and TV as a main
reason for the newspaper readership fall.
Internet sites are reportedly getting about 17 per cent of the
total advertising money spent by Korean companies, while newspapers
are getting smaller share of advertising money.
About 15 million homes in 16 million homes in South Korea are
cable TV subscribers, with 10 per cent of these homes using digital
cable TV with more than 100 channels.
The KPF survey ranked newspapers as the third-most-reliable source
of information after TV broadcasters and digital media.
The poll comes at a time when Korean companies are often
discouraged from putting their advertising money into conservative
newspapers after these newspapers have become the targets of
criticism from more liberal young people.
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