The country which has the distinction of having the two largest circulated…
2009
The country which has the distinction of having the two largest circulated newspapers in the world is
Answer: C. Japan — Concept. The circulation of a newspaper is the audited average number of copies distributed per publishing day, and world rankings compare titles on their…
- A.
Great Britain
- B.
The United States
- C.
Japan
- D.
China
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept. The circulation of a newspaper is the audited average number of copies distributed per publishing day, and world rankings compare titles on their morning-edition figures so that markets with and without evening editions are measured on the same basis. Which country holds the highest-circulation titles is decided less by population than by market structure: where a high newspaper-reading rate is combined with subscription home delivery of a few national dailies, enormous circulation concentrates in a handful of titles, whereas a market built on city-by-city local papers spreads the same readership thinly across many titles.
Application. Apply that structural test to the four countries offered and compare the leading dailies of each on the same morning-edition basis.
Country | Press structure | Two widest-circulating dailies (2000s, morning edition) |
|---|---|---|
Japan | Subscription home delivery of a few national dailies read nationwide | Yomiuri Shimbun about 10 million; Asahi Shimbun about 8 million |
Great Britain | National dailies sold mainly from newsstands across the country | The Sun about 3 million; Daily Mail about 2 million |
The United States | Metropolitan dailies each serving a single city or region | The Wall Street Journal about 2 million; USA Today about 2 million |
China | Hundreds of provincial and municipal papers sharing a very large readership | Cankao Xiaoxi about 3 million; People’s Daily about 3 million |
Japan’s two leading dailies each circulate about three to four times as many copies as the strongest title in any other country offered, so both of the top two places in the world ranking are held by Japanese newspapers.
Cross-check. The published world ranking of daily newspaper circulation (WAN-IFRA World Press Trends, 2009) places Yomiuri Shimbun first and Asahi Shimbun second. No other country in the option set has even a single title above about 3 million, so no other country could supply both of the top two positions.
Answer. Japan — both of the two largest-circulated newspapers in the world are published there.