About:
In December 2010, a strategic merger was announced in China to reshape educational publishing. China Education Publishing & Media Group (China Education) was formed with five subsidiaries: Higher Education Press (HEP), PEP (Peoples's Education Press), LCP (Language & Culture Press), CEPIEC (China Educational Publication Import & Export Corporation) and China Educational Instrument & Equipment Corp. Combined, those groups account for revenues of ca. 2.8 billion RMB (or 320 million EUR). According to Li Pengyi, General manager of the new group, its focus is on the rapid development and international dimension in Chinese educational publishing, improving the group’s stock listing, and developing digital strategies.
Higher Education Press (HEP), the largest publisher of educational books in China, was founded in 1954. The company has a major focus on publishing university textbooks on Science and Engineering.
Over the past two decades, HEP has broaded in scope from college textbooks to all-level books for postgraduate education, vocational education, continuing education, and online education, and covers topics including science, engineering, humanity and the arts, social sciences, education, economics, and management.
Higher Education Press also develops audiovisual electronic products and online teaching materials, and has published over 30,000 titles, currently around 4,500 annually, including 1,500 new titles, adding up to 65 million produced per year.
Key company developments in 2011 & 1st half year 2012
Financial:
No updated company information on the first year’s activities has been made available so far. Therefore, China Education is listed with the combined revenues of the merged companies as they were stated upon the merger at year’s end in 2010.
Ownership, mergers & acquisition, internal organization:
China Education has been formed in the perspective of establishing a Chinese born global player to participate in the international markets of educational publishing.
International:
Higher Education Press has announced a cooperation agreement with the Dutch journal publisher Brill.
Cooperation with the Thai Ministry of Education was extended in 2011.
In 2010, HEP sold 179 titles to publishers in Europe and the Americas, leading China in copyright exports.
Digital:
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Bestselling authors & titles:
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Key points for analysis & conclusions:
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Earlier developments:
HEP founded a new Academic Journals Division which entered a partnership with Springer, sealed in 2006, over the joint publication of 36 journals which are accessible online through SpringerLink as the Chinese Library of Science. Further cooperation projects have been set up with McGraw-Hill Education and Cambridge University Press.
Educational materials from HEP have been adopted by the educational system in Thailand.
Note: 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 and Disney/Hyperion are excluded from the rankings. The listing and publisher profiles were compiled by international publishing consultant Rudiger Wischenbart under the aegis of Livres Hebdo.
