Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 15 /Trend, T.Hajiyev/
Azerbaijani Press Council chairman gave an estimate to the development of press in 2010.
"The press in Azerbaijan this year could resolve their problems from an economic point of view compared to previous years. The improvement of economic situation in the country also finds its reflection in increasing care about the press. The assistance to the media is constantly increasing. In this connection, economic problems of the media will be resolved soon," chairman of the Press Council Aflatun Amashov said in an interview with Trend.
According to him, the decline in sales of newspapers became one of the main problems of Azerbaijani press in 2010. According to him, reduction in the dynamics of the sale of newspapers around the world is a natural process.
"This problem has arisen because of the Internet. New competitors of print media appeared. The number of readers of print media reduced after Internet resources appeared," said Amashov.
According to him, the level of newspaper sales in Azerbaijan is less than in neighboring countries.
"In other countries, the level of readership of newspapers is calculated by the number of newspapers purchased per thousand people. This number in Azerbaijan is very small compared with other countries. The reason is both printing quality of newspapers and the changing of economic formation, the alphabet. During the Soviet period, the interests of readers were quite different. During the period of independence, a new press appeared, and this press can not be accepted by the old reader," said Amashov.
According to him, the quality of articles also affects the number of readers. "If these articles would attract readers, the newspapers would not leave in the newsstands. In Azerbaijan the large circulation newspapers have circulation of 10,000 copies, while the average circulation is 2,500 or 3,000. This figure is very low for a country with a population of nine millionth," said Amashov.
According to him, over the next years, the goal of the Press Council will be to increase the economic power of the media. The Council has prepared some suggestions for next year.
Amashov said this year the Press Council has made proposals to expand the advertising market of press.
"We have made proposals about the possibilities of expanding the advertising market. We used the experience of Turkey and other countries in preparing these proposals. One of the proposals was the idea of introducing experience of foreign countries regarding the expansion of advertising of official agencies," said Amashov.