Two Chinese Publishers Join List of World’s Biggest Publishers

Pearson, the U.K.-based educational publishing company, remains the world’s biggest publisher, according to the Livres Hebdo/Publishers Weekly annual ranking based on 2014 revenues. Two Chinese publishers were among the top 10 out of 57 companies that were ranked.

Pearson, which was also number one last year, generated over $7 billion in revenue in 2014. The two Chinese companies—Phoenix Publishing and Media Company and China South Publishing and Media Group—were number six and seven, respectively. There were four Chinese companies in all that were ranked.

To be included in the annual ranking, a publisher must have at least $200 million in sales and it should have documentation for its figures.

Top 10 Publishers

Here are the 10 biggest publishers in the world, according to a report by Publishers Weekly on June 26. The list includes revenues, mother corporation, and country of mother company.

1. Pearson, $7.07 billion (Pearson, U.K.)
2. Thomson Reuters, $5.76 billion (Woodbridge Co., Canada)
3. RELX Group, $5.36 billion (Reed Elsevier, U.K./Netherlands/U.S.)
4. Wolters Kluwer, $4.45 billion (Wolters Kluwer, Netherlands)
5. Penguin Random House, $4.04 billion (Bertelsmann AG, Germany)
6. Phoenix Publishing and Media Company, $2.84 (Phoenix Publishing and Media Company, China)
7. China South Publishing and Media Group, $2.57 (China South Publishing and Media Group, China)
8. Hachette Livre, $2.43 billion (Lagardere, France)
9. McGraw-Hill Education, $2.19 billion (The McGraw-Hill Cos., U.S.)
10. Holtzbrinck, $2 billion (Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, Germany)

You can read the Publishers Weekly report and view the entire list here.

View last year’s list of top 10 biggest publishers.