For 2012, a listing of the top publishers of the world looks a lot like a reprint from 2011. The first four placers all have repeated, with Pearson retaining its crown as the world’s largest publisher, boasting 2012 revenues in excess of $9 billion. A careful eye also notes that maintaining a single-minded title list pays best – and that China is on the march.
“As has been true in recent years, publishers that specialize in scientific/technical/medical books and journals generated the highest revenue,” Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly co-editorial director, tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “There also seems little interest among the largest companies to broaden the area in which they publish, preferring to focus on one segment.”
With all the pressures on the book business today, environmental concerns might be expected to fall off the “to-do” list. Yet a report just out from the Book Industry Environment Council and the Green Press Initiative is cause for applause, Milliot reports. “Greener printing policies have saved over five million trees between 2006 and 2010 and have cut the industry’s carbon footprint by a quarter,” he says.
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Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.