South Koreans most avid readers of online news

Northern European states such as Norway and Iceland were next with 73 percent and 69 percent respectively, followed by Mexico (61 percent), the U.S. (57 percent), Finland (57 percent) and Denmark (52 percent).

The rates in most of the advanced Western European countries, however, were lower than 50 percent, showed the report.

The U.K. took the lead in the region with 37 percent, whereas the figures in France and Germany stood at 22 percent and 21 percent, respectively.

Italy and Ireland went online for the news the least, both showing a usage rate of 17 percent.

Japan was excluded from this year's report but it had exceeded 50 percent in 2005, reflecting an active online news culture.

Korea's lead may be partly attributed to its well-established Internet network. Korea's Internet usage rate ranked sixth worldwide, according to the European Commission report last year.

“The Internet is rapidly replacing the conventional news media,” stated the report.

“In Korea, it has long overpowered all other forms of communication, especially the offline newspaper.”

The Internet newspaper, which at first was used as a supplement to the offline paper, has now become a totally new substitute, the report also said.

The rise of the Internet newspaper has thus led to the fall of the traditional newspaper market.

The global newspaper market, which showed yearly growth of 3.6 percent on average in 2004-2007, took a negative turn in 2008, according to the report.

Also, in most OECD states, the number of newspaper subscribers last year fell to the 2004 level.

Many newspaper companies have thus restructured themselves in recent years to compete in the Internet news market.

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