Book edited by Oxford University academics also claims there is no automatic correlation between internet use and newspaper profitability
British newspapers are too dependent on advertising according to a new book edited by academics at Oxford University.
This imbalance, most marked at the local level in the UK and US, is the main reason for a spate of closures and mass redundancies at publishing groups in recent years, they argue.
The book challenges the conventional wisdom that the internet has undermined business models by claiming that internet usage and newspaper profitability can and do coexist in many places.
The work, commissioned by the Oxford-based Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, examined newspaper industries in several countries, including the US, UK, Germany and Brazil.
In many countries where online activity is high, including Scandinavia and Germany, newspapers are still faring well, with titles typically generating 50% of revenues from advertising.
In the UK and the US, where advertising accounts for a larger proportion of revenues, the picture is far gloomier, but that could be explained by a cyclical advertising recession which has seen spend fall dramatically in recent years, the study suggests.
"Countries like the US, Germany and Finland all have about the same proportion of internet users", the books editors write.
"However, the American newspaper industry, which has generated more than 80% of its income from advertisements, is today in a much more serious crisis than its counterparts in Germany and Finland, where advertising typically constitutes about 50% of total revenues".
The research found that newspapers in countries which have a long tradition of state-sponsored public-service journalism are performing well in the internet age.
Public subsidies have been put forward as a potential business model in the UK, but many newspaper owners are uneasy about accepting government money because they fear it would affect their editorial independence.
The book, The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy, is co-edited by RISJ director Dr David Levy.
Levy was the only foreign member of the commission established by President Sarkozy to review the future of the French public service broadcaster France Televisions.
• This article was amended on 22 November 2010. The original characterised the book above as saying that there is no correlation between internet usage and newspaper profitability. This has been clarified, as has the particular dependence of local papers on advertising.