Five of the World’s Biggest Publishers Stay at the Top

Five of the world’s biggest publishers, led by Pearson, the U.K.-based educational publishing company, maintained their positions on the Livres Hebdo/Publishers Weekly  annual ranking for 2015.

Although the five stayed at the top, they were not immune from financial challenges. Pearson’s revenue fell from over $7 billion in 2014 to $6.6 billion last year. Pearson’s situation was not unique. “In fact, more than half of the companies on the global ranking had a decline last year,” according to Publishers Weekly. “Among the factors for the revenue drop were weak economies in some countries, disruptions caused by the increased use of e-books and other digital content, and currency fluctuations.”

Top 10 Publishers

Publishers Weekly listed 52 of the world’s biggest publishers. The ranking was based on 2015 revenues. Information came from publicly available sources or from individual companies. To be included in the annual ranking, a publisher must have at least $175 million in sales.

Below are the top 10 out of a list of 52 publishers.  The list includes revenues, mother corporation, and country of the mother company.

1. Pearson, $6.6 billion (Pearson, U.K.)
2. Thomson Reuters, $5.7 billion (Woodbridge Co., Canada)
3. RELX Group, $5.2 billion (Reed Elsevier, U.K./Netherlands/U.S.)
4. Wolters Kluwer, $4. 5 billion (Wolters Kluwer, Netherlands)
5. Penguin Random House, $4.0 billion (Bertelsmann AG, Germany)
6. China South Publishing and Media Group, $2.8 (China South Publishing and Media Group, China)
7. Phoenix Publishing and Media Company, $2.7 (Phoenix Publishing and Media Company, China)
8. Hachette Livre, $2.4 billion (Lagardere, France)
9. McGraw-Hill Education, $1.83 billion (The McGraw-Hill Cos., U.S.)
10. Grupo Planeta, $1.80 billion (Grupo Planeta, Spain).

Read the Publishers Weekly report.

View last year’s list of the world’s 10 largest publishers.