Media industry forecast and analysis firm Simba Information has released a new strategic market report, according to which, the overall growth in scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing fell a point and half to 3.8 percent in 2008 to approach $16 billion. The report provides an overview and financial outlook for the global STM publishing market based on specific research and analysis of the leading competitors and market performance in six content delivery categories. It also includes detailed profiles of leading STM publishers such as Reed Elsevier, Thomson and Wolters Kluwer.
The transition from print to electronic publishing has given STM publishers two ways to fuel revenue growth and the market leaders have taken advantage. Traditional models remain viable while publishers generate new revenue from the demand for tools to search, index, link, cite and manage the vast amounts of electronic information now available to researchers and clinical professionals.
According to the report, the Online Services/Abstract & Indexing segment grew fastest compared to the other content delivery segments in 2008. Online/A&I grew 6.1 percent to $2.97 billion in the STM market. Publishers touted the demand for workflow solutions and many have aggressively reorganised their operations to meet it. Medical publishing grew at a compound annual growth rate of 4.1 percent between 2006 and 2008, but growth dipped near the end of the period. It is expected that medical publishing will continue to slow due to the severe economic slump and its impact on advertising, a medical publishing revenue stream that had begun to weaken in 2007.
This research was conducted in conjunction with a larger study of the overall market for professional publishing, the results of which are published in the associated reports "Global Legal & Business Publishing 2008-2009" and "Global Professional Publishing 2008-2009."
