• International Herald Tribune, Monday, May 12, 2008 10:45 AM

Gloom may haunt the newspaper industry in the United States and Europe, but business is reportedly booming in the developing world. In many emerging markets, increasing literacy rates dovetail with growing disposable income to create millions of new daily readers. As a result, new newspapers backed by governments, business moguls or international conglomerates are springing up everywhere from Rwanda to Tajikistan.

Global newspaper ad spending will increase to $130 billion in 2010 from $125 billion in 2007, according to ZenithOptimedia. (This trend is reversed in the U.S., where newspaper ad revenue fell 7.9% in 2007, according to the Newspaper Association of America.)

Western media companies are starting to get into the game by forging partnerships and trying their hand at start-up companies, especially in business news. The Financial Times launched a Middle East edition last month and is currently working on a daily paper in India and a monthly magazine in China.

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