With the advent of the new media called the Internet, I hear that the paper business is uniformly tough. We will confirm how much paper media is being bought from the results of a household survey by the Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (the latest annual version is 2021).
The following is the trend of household purchase frequency (*) and expenditure amount in the detailed items of books and other printed matter (general paper media) in the household survey of all households (all households. Single household + household with two or more people). .. The data from 2002 on which public data can be obtained are rearranged in chronological order.
The frequency of household purchases of newspapers exceeded 100% as of 2002. The type of mailing to your home is calculated as one purchase with a "one month's contract", so in addition to all households subscribing, people who purchased at a stand or station shop and counted in the household budget There were quite a few. That is 66.5% in 2021. A drop of 38.1 percentage points. The downward trend has temporarily stopped since 2012, and even upward movements can be seen from 2013 to 2014, but this is due to the fact that the significance of the newspaper's existence was reviewed by the 2011 earthquake and new curriculum guidelines. It is considered that the reason is that newspapers were mentioned as one of the choices of teaching materials in the procedure. However, those benefits also seem to have disappeared since 2015.
Books have been declining a little, but there is no difference. However, after 2019, it has turned to an increasing trend. There may have been a change in the trend regarding books. As far as 2020 and beyond, the increase in home time due to the epidemic of the new coronavirus may also have an effect.
It can be seen that the rate of decrease in magazines is larger than that in books. Almost 3/4 of all households now "do not buy a single magazine a month". Naturally, the amount of spending is gradually decreasing. In the latest 2021, the frequency of household purchases and the amount of spending have increased year-on-year, but it seems that it will be necessary to determine whether this is irregular or a trend change like books for several years.
From this graph, before around 2005 (the time when mobile phones and the Internet began to spread to the general public), which is the so-called "media turning point", at least from the time of 2002 when the data was obtained this time. You can see the fact that the purchase tendency of major paper media is declining, and that magazines and books are probably susceptible to economic fluctuations.
Looking at trends over the past few years, including the latest 2021, magazines and books have been competing with each other in terms of purchase frequency, and since 2011, when the gap has widened, the movement has continued to expand. I understand. The first year that fewer people buy magazines than books will be in 2008, and after 2011 it will be continuous. In terms of timing, the atmosphere was spurred by the current downturn due to the earthquake. Of course, there is no evidence of whether or not the earthquake had a direct impact, and it cannot be denied that the timings simply coincided.
One of the reasons for the rapid stagnation of magazines is that mobile terminals, especially smartphones, which are rivals from the viewpoint of "medium for gap time" and "strong feeling of abandonment", are accelerating. .. In many cases, books are read over and over again and kept at hand even after they have been read. However, magazines are read once or twice, and there are few cases of long-term storage like books. In terms of so-called "keep reading" time consumption, it is a form that has been taken over by mobile terminals that are more focused and generally low cost.
■ Related article:
[Searching for the actual purchase of weekly magazines, magazines, and books per month (December 2019)]
[By location and size of bookstore / percentage of total sales of magazines and comics (2015) (latest)]
* Household purchase frequency
Household purchase frequency is the monthly purchase frequency for each household. For example, if someone buys a magazine twice in a particular household during that period, the household purchase frequency will be 200% during that period. Note that the calculation includes non-purchased households.
(Note) Unless otherwise specified, the graphs and charts in the text are quoted from the materials described or created by the author based on the materials.
(Note) Unless otherwise specified, the photographs in the text are taken by the author based on the materials described in the text, or taken by the author during the interview.
(Note) Numbers used in article titles, texts, graphs, etc. may be rounded to the nearest whole number so that the display will be optimal on the spot. Therefore, the total value of the numbers on the display may not match exactly.
(Note) If the value at the end of the axis of the graph is set to a non-zero positive value in order to format the graph and make it easier to see the movement of numbers, the value may be circled to call attention. ..
(Note) In the graph, some notations such as items (such as okurigana) may be omitted or changed in order to improve the appearance. Also, "~" may be expressed as "-".
(Note) "ppt" in the graph means% point.
(Note) "(Large) Earthquake" means the Great East Japan Earthquake unless otherwise specified or detailed.
(Note) This article is a partial addition or change to the article posted in [Garbage News].