With the global economy still struggling to get on a solid footing in 2010, the world’s largest publishers had a mixed performance in the year, although the majority of companies managed to post sales gains in the year. That was definitely the case at Pearson, where revenue increases in trade and educational publishing combined to keep the U.K.-based publishing giant atop the Livres Hebdo/Publishers Weekly world publishing rankings with sales of close to $8.1 billion. Among Pearson’s closest competitors, divestitures, currency fluctuations, and softness in some markets dropped revenue at all but Thomson Reuters.

The first change in the listing came in the seventh spot, where McGraw-Hill Education, with a revenue increase of 2%, pulled ahead of Grupo Planeta, which had a 6% decline in the year. The top 10 publishers had a more North American flavor in 2010 compared to recent years, with Cengage and Scholastic displacing the European giants Holtzbrinck and De Agostini Editore in the top 10 (though it must be noted Holtzbrinck and De Agostini’s revenue are from 2009, as 2010 figures are not yet available).

The accession of Cengage and Scholastic reflected the growth of educational publishing among the top 10 publishers. Between 2008 and 2010, educational publishing revenue in the group rose 19%, and its share of revenue increased to 27%. Much of the gain came from publishers serving emerging nations, including China, which has made education a high priority. While scientific/technical/medical publishers generated the largest share of sales among the top 10 publishers, trade sales fell in the 2008–2010 period, representing 31% of revenue last year.


Top Publishers of the World ($ in Millions)

Rank Publishing Company (Group or Division) Parent Company Parent Country 2010 $ Revenues 2009 $ Revenues
1 Pearson Pearson Corp. U.K. 8,095.14 7,756.40
2 Reed Elsevier Reed Elsevier Corp. U.K./NL/U.S. 7,147.12 7,367.12
3 Thomson Reuters The Woodbridge Co. Ltd. Canada 5,637.00 5,470.00
4 Wolters Kluwer Wolters Kluwer NL 4,718.81 4,910.77
5 Bertelsmann Bertelsmann AG Germany 3,844.32 4,256.95
6 Hachette Livre Lagardère France 2,872.96 3,259.03
7 McGraw-Hill Education The McGraw-Hill Cos. U.S. 2,433.00 2,388.00
8 Grupo Planeta Grupo Planeta Spain 2,427.08 2,586.58
9 Cengage Learning Apax Partners et al. Canada/US 2,007.00 1,958.00
10 Scholastic Corp. Scholastic U.S. 1,912.00 1,849.00
11 Holtzbrinck Verlagsgruppe/ Georg von Holtzbrinck Germany N/A 1,874.79
12 De Agostini Editore Gruppo De Agostini Italy N/A 1,843.20
13 Wiley Wiley U.S. 1,699.00 1,611.00
14 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Education Media and Publishing Group Ltd. U.S./Cayman Islands 1,673.00 1,600.00
15 Shueisha Hitotsubashi Group Japan 1,591.73 1,448.14
16 Kodansha Kodansha Japan 1,492.55 1,352.07
17 Shogakukan Hitotsubashi Group Japan 1,436.20 1,385.05
18 HarperCollins News Corporation U.S. 1,269.00 1,388.00
19 Springer Science and Business Media EQT and GIC Investors Sweden/ Singapore 1,149.18 1,228.77
20 Informa Informa plc U.K. 1,038.98 1,074.90
21 Gakken Gakken Co. Ltd. Japan 952.88 845.94
22 Oxford University Press Oxford University U.K. 941.71 938.65
23 Bonnier The Bonnier Group Sweden 927.22 937.71
24 Grupo Santillana PRISA Spain 851.93 884.50
25 RCS Libri RCS Media Group Italy 804.56 828.88
26 Egmont Group Egmont International/ Holding A/S Denmark/ Norway 792.22 838.77
27 Kadokawa Publishing Kadokawa Holdings Inc. Japan 791.79 614.67
28 Simon & Schuster CBS U.S. 790.80 793.50
29 Woongjin ThinkBig Woongjin Holding Korea 722.76 N/A
30 Daekyo Publishing Daekyo Network Korea 692.79 N/A
31 Klett Klett Gruppe Germany 617.45 667.72
32 Cornelsen Cornelsen Germany 583.88 617.97
33 Reader’s Digest RDA Holding U.S. 582.00 758.00
34 Mondadori The Mondadori Group Italy 549.25 612.23
35 Messageri Italiane-Gruppo editoriale Mauri Spagnol Messagerie Italiane Italy 525.36 494.66
36 Harlequin Torstar Corp. Canada 467.53 468.85
37 Sanoma Sanoma WSOY Finland 464.45 610.37
38 Média-Participations Média-Participations Belgium 434.33 456.95
39 Lefebvre-Sarrut Frojal France 430.48 450.21
40 Higher Education Press Higher Education Press China (PR) 392.15 367.91
41 La Martinière Groupe La Martinière Groupe France 376.87 372.79
42 Shinchosha N/A Japan N/A 362.34
43 Westermann Verlagsgruppe Medien Union (Rheinland-Pfalz Gruppe) Germany 342.37 358.16
44 Bungei N/A Japan 335.39 322.61
45 Groupe Gallimard Madrigall France 320.34 347.98
46 Abril Educação Abril group Brazil 307.71 N/A
47 Perseus Perseus U.S. 300.00 N/A
48 Weka Weka Firmengruppe Germany 277.34 300.81
49 Kyowon Kyowon Korea 272.80 365.62
50 MairDuMont Privately held Germany 265.40 258.08
51 Haufe Gruppe Privately held Germany 256.11 274.43
52 Saraiva Saraiva Brazil 249.76 N/A
53 Weltbild Verlagsgruppe Weltbid GmbH Germany 232.23 250.92

N/A = Not Available
Source: © LIVRES HEBDO

Note: Figures are based on sales generated in calendar 2010 or—for corporations with a fiscal year—from fiscal 2010. Data are from publicly available sources and include sales of books, journals, and digital products. Because publishing data were unavailable, Pannini and Disney/Hyperion are excluded from the rankings. The listing was compiled by international publishing consultant Rudiger Wischenbart (www.wischenbart.com) under the aegis of Livres Hebdo.