KN22074

KEY NOTE REVIEW : Publishing Industry UK: March 2004

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This report covers:publishing industry, newspapers, nationals, regionals, daily papers, Sunday papers, morning papers, evening, papers, weekly, paid for Sunday, Free, Free morning, Free Sunday, national press, National Newspaper Publishers, Regional Newspaper publishers, press complaints commission, key trade associations, market size, magazines, consumer titles, niche titles, number of titles, business and professional titles,Televison listings, magazines, women's, weekly, monthly, women's Health & Beauty, teenage, Pop & Rock, Young Lifestyle, Men's, Motoring, photography, computin, football, golf, home interest, gardening, cookery and kitchen, Financial Servies, Medical, Grocery and Licencing, Travel, Marketing, construction and building, consumer magazines, business magazines, books, consumer books, academic books, school books, retailing, bookshop chains, independent bookshops, supermarkets, other outlets, key Trade Organisations, legislation, factors, political economic, social, VAT concerns, the internet, pricing and profit, Key Note Primary Research, by sex, by age, by social grade,newspaper companies,

Companies covered include: Archant Regional, Daily Mail & General Trust, Guardian Media Group, Independent News & Media, Johnston Press, Midland New Association, News Corporation, Newsquest, Northern & Shell, Telegraph Group, Trinity Mirror, BBC Worldwide, Centaur Communications, CMP Information, Conde Nast Publications, DC Thomson & Company, Dennis Publishing, DMG World Media, EMAP, Euromoney Institutional Investor, Future Publsihing, Hachette Filipacchi, Haymarket Magazines, H Bauer Publishing, Highbury House Communications, Informa Group, IPC Media, John Brown Citrus Publishing, National Magazine Compnay, Reader's Digest, Association, Redwood, Publishing, VNU Business Publications, Blackwell Publishing, Bloomsbury Publishing, Cambridge University Press, Harper Collins, Hodder Headline, Macmillan Publishers, Orion, Oxford University Press, Pearson, Random House, Reed Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, thomson Corporation, the Quarto Group,

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Executive Summary

INTRODUCTION

This Key Note review discusses the UK publishing industry. Key Note estimates that the value of the market was £18.03bn in 2003. Newspapers represent 42.6% of the market, magazines 36.4% and books 21%.

Around a dozen companies are predominant in each of the sectors and very few companies are in more than one sector of the UK market. Pearson PLC is the only company to appear in all three sectors.

The UK publishing industry is largely UK-owned. However, in the magazines sector there are a number of foreign-owned companies, such as IPC

Media Ltd, Conde Nast, National Magazine Company, The Reader's Digest Association and VNU.

In the newspapers sector, the regional newspaper groups, Newsquest Media PLC and Independent Newspapers (Regionals) Ltd are owned by US and Irish companies respectively. In the daily newspapers sector, The Independent and The Independent on Sunday are owned by the Irish company, Independent Newspapers Ltd. The Times, The Sunday Times, News of the World and The Sun are all owned by News Corporation, which is managed and part owned by the Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. The Telegraph Group Ltd, which owns The Daily Telegraph, and The Sunday Telegraph, was put up for sale in early 2004 by its Canadian parent, Hollinger Incorporated, to Sir Richard and Sir David Barclay in the UK, who already own several UK newspapers, including The Scotsman. However, in February 2004, the board of Hollinger International sued Lord Black in order to stop him selling his stake in the company to the Barclay brothers, and at the time of going to press in March 2004, the sale of Lord Black's stake in Hollinger International was therefore wide open.

In the books sector, Harper Collins, Macmillan, Nelson Thornes, Orion, Octopus and Random House Group are all foreign-owned. Reed Elsevier is a jointly-owned UK/Netherlands company.

NEWSPAPERS

There are around 1,300 newspapers in the UK regional newspaper press. There are 13 papers in the national newspaper sector, according to British Rate & Data (BRAD). Sales of national newspapers, especially Sunday papers are declining and sales of the quality newspapers are falling more quickly than those of the popular newspapers.

More than half the UK's regional newspapers reported an increase in sales in the first half of 2003, according to the latest audited figures. Weekly paid-for papers are the most successful part of the regional newspaper market.

MAGAZINES

At the end of 2003, there were 8,269 magazines, which includes consumer, business and academic titles. Consumer titles represent 38.5% of the total number of magazines.

Leisure and entertainment magazines produce the largest number of titles. However, in terms of volume, women's magazines are still the most important part of the market accounting for 15.7 million copies. There are just over

8 million copies of women's weeklies sold every week and around 7.7 million copies of women's monthlies sold every month. No other sector of the magazine market sells in such volumes. The magazine sector is an overcrowded market, therefore, new titles target themselves at niche areas that their owners believe already exist or are about to expand.

BOOKS

In 2003, retail book sales were £3.78bn according to Key Note estimates. This represented a rise of 2.1% on 2002. Since 1999, the market has grown by a total of 16% and around 67% of the market's value is consumer books. Pricing has become a big issue in the book publishing sector. Research by Nielsen Media Research in 2003, showed that the volume of books being bought in the high street was rising much faster than the value of books being sold. Publishers and authors are concerned about who is profiting from the increase in the amount of books being sold. It appears as if it is the bookshops and the supermarkets that are benefiting, rather than the publishers and the authors.

The FUTURE

Key Note estimates that the UK publishing market will grow by 12.9% between 2004 and 2008. Magazine revenues are likely to rise by 17.3%, newspaper revenues by 15.2% and book publishing by 14.7%.

The factors which will affect the market are the general economic outlook, interest rates, consumer spending and advertising. For newspapers and business magazines, a revival in advertising will be essential to their growth in 2004.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Text © 2004 Key Note

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Last updated by Amanda Porteous June 2004