Print is preferred choice

As the future of print media is unclear in the global phenomenon, Sri Lanka joined other South Asian countries where the newspaper industry is thriving, despite challenges of digitalisation, online media platforms and penetration of the internet, a Central Bank research study revealed.

According to provisional data in the latest edition of the Central Bank’s Economic & Social Statistics publication, last year, 538.82 million newspaper copies were sold, a significant increase from the 508.08 million copies sold in 2015.

The Report also reveals that, in 2016, the annual circulation of the daily newspaper was 411.76 million, from 383.13 million in 2015.

Daily, some 62 newspaper copies circulated among every 1,000 persons in 2016, a slight increase from 58 copies per 1,000 persons in 2015.

Both Sinhala and English dailies lead the circulation boost in a tremendous way. The Sinhala newspapers saw an annual circulation of 259 million copies in 2016, up from 226.49 million copies in 2015. The annual circulation of English daily newspapers increased to 91.8 million copies in 2016, from 80.73 million copies in 2015.

Meanwhile, the data also indicated a significant decreasing trend towards Tamil newspapers' circulation of 60.97 million in 2016, from 75.91 million in 2015. The weekly circulation of Tamil newspapers saw a downturn of 21.65 million copies in 2015, to 19.3 million copies last year. The English and Sinhala weekly newspapers also showed an increase in circulation though Tamil newspapers showed a decrease.

The Sinhala newspaper circulation increased to 83.2 million last year as against 80.8 million in 2015 while weekly English newspaper circulation increased to 24.4 million as against 22.4 million in 2015. The Tamil newspaper circulation dropped from 21.6 million in 2015 to 19.3 million.