Off-the-shelf market research publisher Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA), US, has published a report titled 'Publishing Industry: A Global Outlook'. The report provides a collection of statistical anecdotes, market briefs and summaries of research findings. It is seen to offer a condensed overview of the global market, and extensively enumerate the recent mergers and acquisitions together with latest industry developments.
According to the report, key factors wielding an influence on the world publishing market include favorable economic conditions, lifestyle trends, population growth, purchasing power, ethnic diversity and age composition, education standards and foreign trade. Electronic or online publishing is the fast catching popular medium for publishing books, newspapers, magazines and other types of publications. There has been rising interest in the field of CD-Rom publishing with an increasing number of publishers offering the CD-Rom version that enables convenient storage, search and retrieval, it was noted. Due to their increasing acceptance, several key magazines, local newspapers, regional newspapers and wire services have started offering online services.
The global publishing industry is highly fragmented with large numbers of publishers jostling for a foothold in the market. Besides commercial publishers, the publishing industry also comprises non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly associations. In an attempt to retain global competitiveness, big publishing houses are seeking opportunities to achieve synergies in their operations through acquisitions and consolidation. Time Warner, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Random House and Penguin dominate the book-publishing market while Reed Elsevier, Thomson Corp, Wolters Kluwer and McGraw-Hill take the lead in the professional publishing market. Reader's Digest Association and Time Warner represent popular publishers of magazines while lulu.com, xlibris.com, authorhouse.com and upublish.com offer the latest in dot.com publishing.
The US and Europe dominate the global publishing industry. The US book publishing market is witnessing an upward trend and is expected to sustain growth in the coming years, according to the report. The scientific publishing market is composed of books, journals and databases, and between the three, the share of journals continues to grow, while that of books and databases is stable.
The research report is available online at http://www.strategyr.com/Publishing_Industry_Market_Report.asp.
