Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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New Zealand publishing recovers after weak 2013-14

A new PricewaterhouseCoopers report shows a recovery in the New Zealand book publishing industry in 2015 after weak years in 2013 and 2014.

The report estimates the total value of the industry to have risen to NZ$397m (A$381.7m) in 2015, up from NZ$328m (A$315.4m) in 2014 and NZ$312m (A$300m) in 2013. The figure includes bricks-and-mortar, library, online, educational, ebook, rights and other sales to determine the industry’s contribution to New Zealand’s GDP.

The recovery is led by strong improvement from bricks-and-mortar stores, with sales rising up from NZ$78m (A$75m) in 2014 to NZ$97m (A$93.3) in 2015. Trade sales to libraries and educational institutions, educational publishing sales, and online and ebook sales were flat, while ‘other sales’, including rights and non-traditional sales, rose from NZ$13m (A$12.5m) to NZ$20m (A$19.2m).

The report notes that despite flat sales in educational publishing, it’s expected that export sales of New Zealand educational resources will grow in the coming years on the back of deals with Chinese publishing houses. It also found that employment in the sector has fallen slightly, dropping from 5007 jobs in 2012 to 4929 jobs in 2015.

Copyright Licensing NZ CEO Paula Browning said it was ‘reassuring to see that our publishing industry continues to thrive and grow’. ‘Readers now have access to books in either print or digital formats and the investment that our authors and publishers have made in digital distribution is starting to pay off,’ said Browning.

To view the report, click here.

 

Category: Local news