Publishing industry

The rich have got richer as the top 10 global publishing groups saw a collective double-digit jump in sales in 2022. Yet those just outside the highest echelon stuttered, with revenue flat or falling for the next tiers of international conglomerates, as post-pandemic and cost-of-living crisis slowdowns took a toll.

In a move that some in the industry will welcome as putting at least a temporary stop to industry consolidation, the private investment firm KKR has reached an agreement with Paramount Global to acquire Simon & Schuster for $1.62 billion in an all cash transaction.

When it comes to the publishing industry, the domain has seen several changes due to varying trends. The amalgamation of brilliant minds, innovative ideas, and, most importantly, emerging technologies have encouraged its huge growth. For this reason, the publishing industry is standing strong, with $28.1 billion in revenue as of 2022.  Read more

The last few weeks have seen a lot of discussion around author welfare, industry stress and, most recently, publisher resourcing - topics that overlap considerably in my experience. On the latter, I'm not sure I would agree that publishers are less resourced now than they were previously. Haven't we always been stretched?

More than half of authors (54%) responding to a survey by The Bookseller on their experiences of publishing their debut book have said the process negatively affected their mental health. Though views were mixed, just 22% of the 108 respondents to the survey described a positive experience overall with their first publication.