The Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry 2013 is out

The Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry, started in 2006, has been released in its fully updated edition of 2013.

The ranking lists the 60 largest publishing groups worldwide, with their revenues (mostly based on 2012 figures), and with a detailed analysis of recent developments in global publishing markets over the past year. For all listed companies, company profiles are available.

The 10 largest publishing groups worldwide account for over half of the revenues of the total 50 houses listed, yet with that share slightly decreasing from 57 % (in 2008, 2009 and 2010) to 55 % in 2012. At the same time, the share of the 30 companies listed between rank 21 and 50 rose from 21 % in 2008 and 2009 to 25 % in 2012.

This evolution mirrors well how new companies, notably from emerging markets, enter the global arena and claim a role of their own.

Also, the three main sectors of the publishing industry – professional information & Science-Technical-Medical (STM) publishing –, educational and trade publishing evolve fairly differently.

The STM segment accounts for 41 % of the reported revenues, while educational publishing represents over a third, or 34 %, and trade (or general literature) is down to only 25 % of the total value that has been created by the leading actors in international publishing. Notably the gap between the share of educational and trade publishing is opening ever wider, highlighting that “educational” is currently the perhaps most competitive sector of the industry.

The Global Ranking has been initiated by Livres Hebdo, and is co-published by buchreport, Publishers Weekly, PublishNews Brazil, The Bookseller.
Find a summary for download here.