We've updated this feature for 2013! Click here to get the latest information.

Pearson's commitment to publishing allowed it to widen the company's lead as the world's largest book publisher in 2011. While Pearson, with holdings in both the trade and educational publishing segments, was able to increase its revenue last year, its closest rivals lost ground, according to Livres Hebdo/Publishers Weekly's annual ranking of the world's largest publishers. Second place Reed Elsevier, for example, saw its publishing sales fall as it had created a risk management division, which has no book-related sales.

Among other top 10 companies, Hachette Livre sales dipped due to spotty softness worldwide, including a small decline in the U.S. Grupo Planeta sales were also off in 2011, and with economic conditions worsening in Spain the publisher faces a difficult 2012. Softness in the school market resulted in a decline in sales at McGraw-Hill Education in 2011, but the company remained the largest U.S.-based book publisher.

Bertelsmann's book revenue declined in 2011 as well, due to the sale of its direct group business, and its publishing activities are now centered around Random House's trade publishing operations. The company could move up the charts in the future, however, if Bertelsmann makes good on its plan to expand into educational publishing. Its German rival, Holtzbrinck, has long had a diversified publishing portfolio of trade, science, and educational properties, and it had strong gains in 2011, closing the gap with Bertelsmann (at least on the publishing side) and putting the parent company of Macmillan in ninth place among the global publishing giants. The 10 largest publishers accounted for about 47% of all revenue generated by the 54 companies that made this year's list.

Beyond the top 10, one of the most notable changes among the largest publishers occurred in the first part of 2012, when Russian publishing leader AST (#45 overall in 2011) bought EKSMO (#54).

Click on the company name in the table below to read a profile of that company.

Rank (2011) Rank (2010) Publishing Company (Group or Division) Country Mother Corp. or Owner Country Mother Corp. 2011 Revenue in $M 2010 Revenues in $M
1 1 Pearson U.K. Pearson U.K. $8,411 $8,097
2 2 Reed Elsevier U.K./NL/U.S. Reed Elsevier Corp. U.K./NL/U.S. $5,686 $7,149
3 3 Thomson Reuters U.S. The Woodbridge Company Ltd. Canada $5,435 $5,637
4 4 Wolters Kluwer NL Wolters Kluwer NL $4,360 $4,719
5 6 Hachette Livre France Lagardère France $2,649 $2,873
6 8 Grupo Planeta Spain Grupo Planeta Spain $2,304 $2,427
7 7 McGraw-Hill Education U.S. The McGraw-Hill Companies U.S. $2,292 $2,433
8 5 Random House Germany Bertelsmann AG Germany $2,274 $3,844
9 11 Holtzbrinck Germany Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck Germany $1,952 $1,512
10 10 Scholastic (corp.) U.S. Scholastic U.S. $1,906 $1,912
11 9 Cengage Learning U.S. Apax Partners et al. U.S./Canada $1,876 $2,007
12 13 Wiley U.S. Wiley U.S. $1,743 $1,699
13 12 De Agostini Editore Italy Gruppo De Agostini Italy $1,724 $1,843
14 15 Shueisha Japan Hitotsubashi Group Japan $1,714 $1,597
15 16 Kodansha Japan Kodansha Japan $1,551 $1,498
16 17 Shogakukan Japan Hitotsubashi Group Japan $1,444 $1,441
17 33 Readers' Digest U.S. RDA Holding Co. U.S. $1,438 $1,460
18 14 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt U.S. Education Media and Publishing Group Limited U.S./Cayman Islands $1,295 $1,673
19 19 Springer Science and Business Media Germany EQT and GIC Investors Sweden, Singapore $1,138 $1,149
20 18 HarperCollins U.S. News Corporation U.S. $1,100 (est.) $1,269
21 20 Informa U.K. Informa plc U.K. $1,069 $1,039
22 21 Gakken Japan Gakken Co. Ltd. Japan $1,043 $956
23 22 Oxford University Press U.K. Oxford University U.K. $1,004 $941
24 24 Grupo Santillana Spain PRISA Spain $936 $852
25 23 Bonnier Sweden The Bonnier Group Sweden $909 $927
26 26 Kadokawa Publishing Japan Kadokawa Holdings Inc. Japan $904 $794
27 27 Simon & Schuster U.S. CBS U.S. $787 $791
28 28 Egmont Group Denmark/
Norway
Egmont International Holding A/S Denmark $703 $792
29 29 Woongjin ThinkBig Korea Woongjin Holding Korea $685 $723
30 25 RCS Libri Italy RCS Media Group Italy $667 $805
31 31 Klett Germany Klett Gruppe Germany $594 $617
32 32 Cornelsen Germany Cornelsen Germany $558 $584
33 34 Mondadori Italy The Mondadori Group Italy $506 $549
34 35 GeMS - Gruppo editoriale Mauri Spagnol Italy Messagerie Italiane Italy $494 $525
35 39 Lefebvre Sarrut France Frojal France $467 $430
36 36 Harlequin Canada Torstar Corp. Canada $450 $468
37 37 Sanoma Finland Sanoma WSOY Finland $446 $464
37 40 China Education and Media Group (form. Higher Education Press) China (PR) China Education and Media Group China (PR) $445 $393
39 38 Media Participations France Media Participations Belgium $442 $434
40 46 Abril Educação Brazil Abril Group Brazil $411 $308
41 47 Perseus U.S. Perseus U.S. $350 $300
42 43 Westermann Verlagsgruppe Germany Medien Union (Rheinland-Pfalz Gruppe) Germany $339 $342
43 41 La Martinière Groupe France La Martinière Groupe France $335 $377
44 44 Bungeishunju Japan n.a. Japan $331 $337
45 55 AST Russia Privately owned Russia $330 $215
46 45 Groupe Gallimard France Madrigall France $329 $320
47 42 Shinchosha Japan n.a. (privately owned) Japan $319 $364
48 49 Kyowon Korea Kyowon Korea $298 $273
49 48 Weka Germany Weka Firmengruppe Germany $282 $277
50 52 Saraiva Brazil Saraiva Brazil $267 $249
51 51 Haufe Gruppe Germany Privately owned Germany $269 $256
52 56 Editora FTD Brazil Editora FTD Brazil $226 $214
53 54 Groupe Albin Michel France Groupe Albin Michel France $216 $219
54 58 EKSMO Russia Privately owned Russia $195 $200

Note: Reader’s Digest figures are revenue for the entire company. Book sales in 2011 were $545 million and $590 million in 2010. Figures are based on sales generated in calendar 2011 or—for corporations with a fiscal year—from fiscal 2011. Data are from publicly available sources and include sales of books, journals, and digital products. Because publishing data were unavailable, Pannini, Weltbild, and Disney/Hyperion are excluded from the rankings. The listing was compiled by international publishing consultant Rudiger Wischenbart under the aegis of Livres Hebdo.