Asian Newspaper Publishing Statistics

Newspaper publishers from India make up 70% of the top 10 Asian newspapers by circulation.
Newspaper publishers from Japan make up 30% of the top 10 Asian newspapers by circulation.
Yomiuri Shimbun has the largest daily circulation (8.64 million) of Asian newspapers with available data as of 2022.
The newspaper was also recognized by the Guinness World Records in 2010 for having the highest newspaper circulation in the world.
Asahi Shimbun circulates 4.57 million copies for its morning edition and 1.33 million for its evening edition as of 2021.
Dainik Bhaskar has a daily circulation of 4.58 million as of 2019.
The newspaper has the highest circulation out of newspaper companies from India.
As of 2022, Dainik Jagran’s daily circulation was 2.67 million.
The Times of India is the largest circulated daily newspaper that is written in English.
From 2012 – 2021, the number of newspapers available in China has dropped by 8.65%.

Asian newspapers by daily circulation

For the given data, Yomiuri Shimbun is the Asian newspaper with the largest circulation at 8.64 million.
Asahi Shimbun has a circulation of 5.90 million (second).
Dainik Bhaskar has a circulation of 4.58 million (third).
Indian newspapers make up 70% of the top Asian newspapers listed by circulation.
Japanese newspapers make up 30% of the top Asian newspapers listed by circulation.

*morning edition only, figures not available for evening edition.

A graph is given below to show the top 5 ranked Asian newspapers by their daily circulation figures:

As of 2022, Yomiuri Shimbun has a daily circulation of 8.64 million.
Of this, 6.87 million (79.51%) was for its morning edition and 1.77 million (20.49%) was for its evening edition.
The Guinness World Records recognized Yomiuri Shimbun as being the newspaper with the highest circulation in the world.
In terms of demographics, the newspaper is popular with higher income readers.
13.3% of its readers are males aged 60 – 69.
The newspaper also has several different local editions.
As of 2021, the Yomiuri Shimbun group as a whole had 4,399 employees.

As of 2021, Asahi Shimbun has a daily circulation of 5.90 million.
Of this, 4.57 million (77.46%) was for its morning edition and 1.33 million (22.54%) was for its evening edition.
The newspaper has struggled to sell paid digital subscriptions as its website had been offering news articles for free since 1995.
For the first time in 27 years, the company raised its newspaper subscription rates in 2021.

As of 2019, Dainik Bhaskar has a daily circulation of 4.58 million.
The company has increased its online monthly active users from 2.08 million in 2020 to 17 million in 2022.
This marks a seven-fold increase as the company looks to develop its digital platforms.
Users are averaging over 13 minutes each day in usage through its news app.
As of 2019, its average issue readership exceeded 15.56 million.
As of 2018, Dainik Bhaskar had an audience share of 7.32% in India.

As of 2022, Dainik Jagran has a daily circulation of 2.67 million.
As of 2021, per month its website has over 180 million page views and a unique user base of 36 million.
As of 2019, its average issue readership exceeded 16.87 million.
This was a decline of at least 15.65% when compared to 2017, which averaged readership of over 20 million.
As of 2018, Dainik Jagran had an audience share of 11.43% in India.

As of 2022, Amar Ujala has a daily circulation of 1.85 million.
Its website is used by over 50 million unique worldwide users and it also receives more than 150 million video views each month.
As of 2019, its average issue readership exceeded 9.65 million.
As of 2018, Amar Ujala had an audience share of 7.49% in India.

As of 2022, The Nikkei has a daily circulation of 1.64 million.
Its digital version has 820,000 paid members.
The Nikkei has the highest number of online paid subscribers of Japanese newspapers.
As of 2017 its electronic edition had amassed over 500,000 subscribers, becoming the first newspaper in Japan to be recognized for its successful digital switch.
As of 2020, males made up 68% of its readership.

As of 2022, The Times of India has a daily circulation of 1.59 million.
As of 2019, its average issue readership exceeded 5.56 million.
As of 2018, The Times of India had an audience share of 2.12% in India.
The Times of India is also the largest circulated daily newspaper that is written in English.

As of 2021, there were 1,752 newspapers in China.
Over the given 10-year period, the number of newspapers has dropped by 166, a total percentage decrease of 8.65%.
A drop in the number of newspapers was reported year-on-year for each year in the given data.

A graph is given below to show the number of newspapers in China by year: