THIS WEEK


News Review The headlines: in brief


UK publishing up 2% in Covid-hit year, as digital and audio offset print decline


The PA’s Publishing in 2020 report, a summary of its forthcoming yearbook, shows total publishing income hit record levels in 2020, aided by digital growth


T


otal publishing income hit record levels in 2020, rising 2% to £6.4bn,


buoyed by a digital surge that helped offset a 6% decline in print sales, a report by the Publishers Association (PA) shows. The Publishing in 2020 report, a summary version of the PA’s forthcoming yearbook, showed home sales income rose 4% to £2.5bn in 2020, while exports remained unchanged year on year at £3.7bn, despite the challenges brought by Covid-19. While digital sales income rose 12% to £3bn, the print market struggled more with the pandemic-hit year, seeing a 6% decline by value (to £3.4bn) and a 7% fall by volume (to 608 million units). However, consumer book print sales rose 4%, with the decline coming in the education and academic sectors. The consumer market saw big increases across the board, with total income rising 7% to £2.1bn. The education sector had a difficult year, with a 21% slump in income to £528m. Academic publishers fared beter, with a 3% rise to £3.3bn. Stephen Lotinga, c.e.o. of the


PA, told The Bookseller: “While being up 2% isn’t the highest increase of any industry at any time ever, considering the sheer scale of the problems we were trying to deal with, I think it’s an incredible performance. Our sales overseas stayed steady overall which, considering the difficult we had geting books to our markets, was prety phenomenal. But the real story I think is at


22 30th April 2021


home, where there has been a huge resurgence of reading, particularly consumer publishing and fiction. People had more time on their hands, and they turned to great novels.” On exports, he said: “We’ve been very fortunate in the sense that there seemed to be very real problems at various points and particular publishers really struggled to get books out there . I think when we were having this conversation halfway through last year, the figures were much more depressing. But in the second half of the year clearly there has been a real surge and publishers have adapted and changed. Also, obvi- ously, the growth of digital has meant the barriers to exporting are greatly reduced.”


Consumer publishing enjoyed


a stellar year and was the only sector to see a rise in print income, increasing 4% to £1.7bn, while digital rose 24% to £418m. Overall, home sales hit £1.5bn, up 9%, while exports were up 4% to £675m. The top three export markets (Australia, the US and Germany) all saw rises. Income from fiction soared


16% to £688m, with non-fiction rising 4% to £1bn and children’s up 2% to £396m. Audio down- loads rocketed by a whopping 37% to £133m. Lotinga said the statistics showed audiobooks continued to be the major growth area of UK consumer publishing, rising 241% over the past five years, albeit from a fairly low base. New consumers were being brought into the sector, audio sales appeared not to cannibalise


those of print, devices have prolif- erated and “really great books” were driving the boom, he said. Lotinga added: “In the past we have thought about the convenience of people driving and commuting, yet last year there were big reductions in that but a lot of people still listened at home. Clearly people like listening to audiobooks, regard- less of whether its just a point of convenience. It’s something they do in their house as well, which is a big learning point.” In contrast to the consumer


sector, education publishing had a 5% decline in the home market, with total income at £176m, while exports plummeted 27% to £351m, with the top three export countries (Spain, Mexico and Saudi Arabia) all seeing falls. Print was down 24% overall to £461m, although digital rose 8% to hit £67m.


Lotinga said this was a combination of declines in the


There has been a huge resurgence of reading... people had more time on their hands, and they turned to great novels Stephen Lotinga, PA c.e.o.


schools and English-language training (ELT) markets. “The largest decrease last year was ELT,” he explained. “That tends to predominantly be in overseas markets, obviously, and the closure of huge numbers of English-language schools around the world meant there were very large reductions. They were down 32% overall, school sales were down 15% overall.”


On the academic side, there was no change in the home market’s £906m total income. However, exports grew 3% to £2.4bn, with sales to the US and Germany rising as exports to China fell. Overall, print was down 13% to £861m, while digital grew 9% to £2.5bn. Book sales declined 5% to £1bn, but journals were up 6% to £2.3bn.


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