Pearson tops global publishing ranking, China enters top 10

29 June 2015 Books+Publishing

Pearson has topped the ‘Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry’, an annual survey of publisher revenues, compiled on behalf of Livres Hebdo, Buchreport, the Bookseller and Publishers Weekly, while two Chinese publishers have been listed in the top 10 for the first time. Publishers Weekly reports that the increasingly complex nature of international publishing reflected in the rankings was influenced by ‘currency fluctuations, consolidations, the digital transition, and the emergence of China’. Pearson recorded US$7.72bn (A$10.1bn) in revenue in 2014 and was followed by Thomson Reuters, RELX Group (previously branded Reed Elsevier) and Wolters Kluwer. The four professional and educational publishers also comprised the top four in 2013, and their consistent ranking is attributed to the revenue from ‘acquisitions and the expansion of the digital delivery of information’. The two Chinese publishers that made the top 10 were Phoenix Publishing and Media Company in sixth spot with a revenue of US$2.84bn (A$3.72bn) and a 16% increase over the fiscal year, and China South Publishing & Media Group in seventh spot with a revenue of US$2.58bn (A$3.38bn) and a 31% increase. Two more Chinese publishers were included in the overall ranking. Publishers Weekly reports that their presence is due to ‘greater financial transparency … in keeping with their goal of becoming a much more important factor in the international publishing scene’. The highest ranking trade publisher was Penguin Random House in fifth spot, with the Penguin merger and Santillana Ediciones Generales acquisition contributing to a rise in revenue of over 25% to US$4.05bn (A$5.30bn). The Bookseller reports declines of 3% for Hachette Livre, 7.7% for Egmont and 2.9% for Bonnier. HarperCollins revenue rose although its Harlequin purchase in August 2014 was too late to factor into the ranking. Other recent major acquisitions predicted to impact on next year’s ranking are: the merger of Macmillan Science and Education with Springer Science and Business Media to create Springer Nature, controlled under Macmillan Science and Education parent company Holtzbrinck; and the Brazilian publisher Abril Educacao’s acquisition of the publishing divisions of Saraiva Group.

Category: International news