Top 5 largest book publishers in the world Wonder what the world’s largest book publishers are? Livres Hebdo/Publishers Weekly published their top global publishers annual ranking, based on figures for the fiscal year 2017. The listing reveals a lot of interesting details; the most notable detail is the significant drop in sales of the top 5 publishers. At the top of the list is London-based Pearson, which had a 15% decline in sales from $6.63 billion in the fiscal year 2015 to $5.62 billion. Pearson and the other publishers in the top 5 each posted more than $3 billion in revenue and are the only companies to do so in the fiscal year 2017. It was not indeed a good year for global publishers. Less than half of the top 50 publishers in Livres Hebdo/Publishers Weekly’s listing posted revenue gains while the rest reported sales declines. The declining sales had led some companies to lay off thousands of employees. The top 5 largest book publishers in the world are: 1. Pearson 2016 Ranking: 1 2017 Ranking: 1 Pearson is not only the largest book publisher in the world but is also the largest education company. Before the company turned to publishing in 1921, it was one of the largest construction companies in the world. Pearson gradually established a firm foothold in the publishing company by acquiring a number of print and broadcast media companies, among them are the Financial Times and The Economist in 1957, publishing company Longman in 1968, Penguin Books and Ladybird Books in 1972, educational publisher Prentice Hall in 1998, and travel publisher Rough Guides in 2002. Pearson turned its focus towards educational publishing in 2016. 2. RELX Group 2016 Ranking: 3 2017 Ranking: 2 According to its website, RELX Group is “a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries.” It has headquarters in London and Amsterdam. The multinational company operates in four market segments: Scientific, technical, and medical under the Elsevier brand. With 16% market share, Elsevier is the world’s largest publisher of academic articles.
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