PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ; AUGUST 28, 2017 56
about 3,000 more positions. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
which was the 14th-largest publisher in 2016 but saw a 3%
decline in revenue, announced this spring that it will eliminate
between 8% and 10% of its workforce of 4,500 in 2017.
McGraw-Hill Education is another publisher in the educational segment that had a sales decline last
year, with revenue off 4% from 2015. Still,
MHE, which hopes to go public at some
point, was the largest American-owned
book publisher in 2016.
PEARSON RISES ABOVE
In a challenging market, more publishers saw sales decline than increase in 2016
BY JIM MILLIOT
Tough Year for Educational Publishers
Sales in the educational market, particularly in the U.S., were
down in 2016 compared to 2015, and the downturn meant
declining sales for publishers and also led some companies to
restructure. Pearson underwent a companywide reorganization
in 2016 that it said was in response to
changes in the educational publishing
market. The move eliminated about 4,000
employees. Earlier this year, the educational publisher said it intended to cut
Although total revenue of the world’s 50 largest book publishers topped $50
billion in 2016, last year was not an easy one for global publishing giants. Less
than half of the top 50 publishers posted revenue gains in 2016, with the balance
reporting sales declines. One of the companies that had the toughest year was
Pearson, which had a 15% decline in sales, to $5.62 billion. Even with the drop
in revenue, Pearson continued its longtime reign as the world’s largest book
publisher, according to the Livres Hebdo/Publishers Weekly annual ranking.
continued on p. 59
