MOSCOW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - The Chinese and Russian press distribution markets have suffered less than other global markets from the financial crisis, the vice president of the Distripress international association said Friday.
Distripress is an international organization uniting over 500 publishers and distributors of press products from 94 countries. According to Distripress president Tony Jashanmal, its main objective is to assist the free, efficient and fast distribution of international press and press products.
A Distripress meeting took place in Moscow June 17-19, and Distripress members met with top officials from the Russian Communications Ministry and the Federal Press and Mass Communications Agency.
"One tendency is very clear. To our surprise, the so-called emerging markets like China and Russia are much more stable and resistant to the crisis in our publishing activities...than our whole market in Germany," Distripress vice-president Alfred Heintze said.
"One of the worst situations we're really facing is in the U.S., where the advertising business is fully down and there's no sign at the moment for recovery," he told a RIA Novosti press conference.
Distripress managing director Peter Emod said there was a worldwide growth of 1.3% in 2008 in the newspaper industry.
"But the tendencies on different continents are quite different. The best result has been achieved in Africa, with 6.9% growth. A moderate growth has been observed in Asia - 2.9%, and in South America with 1.8%," he said, adding that the figure for North America was minus 3.7%.
Dmitry Martynov, the president of Russia's Association of Press Product Distributors, said the crisis had affected the Russian distribution market.
"The crisis has affected the Russian market as well. In our segment, which deals with distribution, it influenced us differently. For example, the biggest fall of press sales occurred at transport hubs - in airports. This is connected with passenger flow falling by 30-40%," he said.
