Newspaper sales across Asia are on the upswing, just the opposite of the trend newspapers in Europe and North America are seeing, as China is currently the world's largest newspaper market, with India close behind, Guardian News & Media reported.

About 107 million newspapers are sold each day in China, while about 99 million are sold daily in India, as investors flock to Asia to buy up titles or launch new ones, the article stated.

One of the latest success stories out of India is Mint, a business daily launched by the Hindustan Times group and the Wall Street Journal, which currently has a daily circulation of 120,000, and is close to breaking even, according to the GN&M article, posted by the Gulf Times Tuesday.

“Internet penetration is very, very low in India,” Raju Narisetti, Mint editor, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, told GN&M. “It will change, but it's not happening yet. As a result it will be 10 to 15 years before some of the problems of newspapers in the West are dealing with come to India ... (Currently,) there's a gold rush of sorts ... some will flame out in disaster and some will be successful.”

Meanwhile, Cambodia's economy saw 9.6 percent growth in 2007, and Australian investors bought out Michael Hayes, founder of the Phnom Penh Post, an English-language daily. Hayes continues to be editor-in-chief. The Post is competing with the non-profit Cambodia Daily, as well as new player Mekong Times.

Indonesia is also a market with little news penetration, and is not as crowded as India's market, GN&M reported. Businessman James Riyandi helped launch the Jakarta Globe, which he believes will be able to exploit the market better than the Jakarta Post, which currently sells 30,000 to 35,000 copies a day, GN&M reported.