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Table of Contents

Executive Summary

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary

Introduction

GENERAL

MARKET SECTORS

Industry Structure

INTRODUCTION

THE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY

THE BOOK PUBLISHING INDUSTRY

THE MAGAZINE INDUSTRY

SUMMARY

TRADE ASSOCIATIONS

Table 2.1: UK Publishing Sales by Sector (£m), 1995

Figure 2.1: UK Publishing Sales by Sector ( percent), 1995

Table 2.2: Top 20 Publishers of Regional Newspapers - Free and Paid-For (000 copies per week and number of titles), 1995

Table 2.3: Output of Books Published in the UK (number of units), 1985-1995

Table 2.4: Approximate Sales of the Principal UK Publishing Groups (£m), Calendar Year 1995

Table 2.5: Number of Magazines Titles, 1985-1995

Table 2.6: Top Ten Consumer Titles by Circulation, January to June 1995

Table 2.7: Top Ten Business Titles by Circulation, January to June 1995

Production and Distribution

INTRODUCTION

EXPENDITURE

OUTPUT AND COSTS

NEWSPAPER PRINTING

MAGAZINE PRINTING

BOOK PRINTING

DISTRIBUTION

Table 3.1: Capital Expenditure in the Printing Industry (£m), 1988-1995

Figure 3.1: Capital Expenditure in the Printing Industry (£m), 1988-1995

Table 3.2: Output and Costs of Production in the Printing and Publishing Industry, 1990-1995

Table 3.3: Estimated Sales of the Top Ten Magazine Printers (£m), 1995

Customer Profile

INTRODUCTION

NEWSPAPER PURCHASING

BOOK PURCHASING

MAGAZINE PURCHASING

Table 4.1: Buying Habits and Attitudes Towards Newspapers by Sex and Age ( percent agreeing), 1996

Table 4.2: Buying Habits and Attitudes Towards Newspapers by Social Class ( percent agreeing), 1996

Table 4.3: Buying Habits and Attitudes Towards Newspapers by Geographical Region ( percent agreeing), 1996

Table 4.4: Buying Habits and Attitudes Towards Books by Sex and Age ( percent agreeing), 1996

Table 4.5: Buying Habits and Attitudes Towards Books by Social Class ( percent agreeing), 1996

Table 4.6: Buying Habits and Attitudes Towards Books by Geographical Region ( percent agreeing), 1996

Table 4.7: Buying Habits and Attitudes Towards Magazines by Sex and Age ( percent agreeing), 1996

Table 4.8: Buying Habits and Attitudes Towards Magazines by Social Class ( percent agreeing), 1996

Table 4.9: Buying Habits and Attitudes Towards Magazines by Geographical Region ( percent agreeing), 1996

Newspaper Publishing

INTRODUCTION

TOTAL REVENUE

NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS

THE REGIONAL PRESS

ADVERTISING AND COPY SALES

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Table 5.1: Total Revenue of UK Newspapers (£m), 1991-1995

Table 5.2: Total Revenue of National and Regional Newspapers (£m), 1991-1995

Table 5.3: National Newspaper Revenue - Proportion of Daily and Sunday Papers by Value ( percent), 1991-1995

Table 5.4: Circulation of National Dailies (copies per day), 1991-1995

Table 5.5: Circulation of National Dailies (copies per day), June to November 1994 and 1995

Table 5.6: Circulation of National Sundays (copies per day), 1991-1995

Table 5.7: Circulation of National Sundays (copies per day), June to November 1994 and 1995

Table 5.8: 10-Year Trend in Regional Newspaper Sales (million), 1985-1995

Table 5.9: Number of Regional Newspapers, 1988-1995

Table 5.10: Circulation of Selected English Regional Morning Papers (copies per day), January to June 1990-1995

Table 5.11: Circulation of Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh Morning Papers (copies per day), January to June 1990-1995

Table 5.12: Circulation of Leading UK Evening Papers (copies per day), January to June 1990-1995

Table 5.13: Circulation of Selected Weekly Titles (copies per week), January to June 1990-1995

Table 5.14: Circulation of Regional Sunday Titles (copies per week), January to June 1991-1995

Table 5.15: Top Ten Publishers of Paid-For Newspapers (000 copies per week and number of titles), 1994 and 1995

Table 5.16: Top Ten Publishers of Free Newspapers (million copies per week and number of titles), 1994 and 1995

Table 5.17: Top Ten Publishers of Regional Newspapers - Free and Paid-For (000 copies per week and number of titles), 1995

Table 5.18: Free Regional Newspapers - Number of Titles and Copies Distributed (million), 1989-1995

Table 5.19: Advertising and Copy Sales of National Newspapers by Value ( percent), 1989-1995

Table 5.20: Advertising and Copy Sales of National Dailies and Sundays by Value ( percent), 1989-1995

Table 5.21: Advertising and Copy Sales of Regional Paid-For Newspapers (£m), 1989-1995

Table 5.22: The Top Newspaper Advertisers (£000), August to September 1994 and 1995

Book Publishing

INTRODUCTION

THE UK MARKET

RETAILING

CONSUMER EXPENDITURE

BOOK PRICES

PAPER PRICES

INDUSTRY PROFILE AND SALES

MAIN MEDIA ADVERTISING

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Table 6.1: Retail Value of UK Book Sales (£m), 1985-1995

Table 6.2: Sector Shares of the UK Retail Book Market by Value ( percent), 1992-1995

Figure 6.1: Sector Shares of the UK Retail Book Market by Value ( percent), 1995

Table 6.3: Output of Books in the UK, 1985-1995

Table 6.4: Major Categories of Book Titles Published in the UK, January to June 1993-1995

Table 6.5: Index of Consumers' Expenditure on Books and All Recreation (RPI adjusted 1985=100), 1990-1994

Table 6.6: UK Book Price Index, 1985-1994

Table 6.7: Approximate Sales of the Principal UK Publishing Groups (£m), Calendar Year 1995

Table 6.8: UK Publishers' Sales in the UK by Category (£m), 1987-1995

Table 6.9: UK Publishers' Export Sales (£m), 1985-1995

Table 6.10: UK Publishers' Export Sales by Geographical Area ( percent), 1985-1995

Table 6.11: Top Ten Book Publishers by Media Advertising (£000), October 1994 to September 1995

Magazine Publishing

INTRODUCTION

MARKET SECTORS

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Table 7.1: Annual Sales and Receipts of UK Periodical Publishers (£m), 1990-1995

Table 7.2: Growth in the Number of Magazine Titles, December 1980-December 1995

Table 7.3: Leading Market Sectors for Consumer Magazines Ranked by Number of Titles, October 1995

Table 7.4: Top Ten Consumer Magazines by Circulation, January to June 1995

Table 7.5: Circulation Figures for Major TV Listings Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.6: Top Women's Weekly Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.7: Top Women's Monthly Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.8: Selected Teenage Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.9: Selected Pop and Rock Music Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.10: Selected Young-Style Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.11: Selected Men's Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.12: Selected Motoring Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.13: Selected Photography and Video Camera Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.14: Selected Paid-For Computing Magazines - Total Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.15: Selected Computer and Video Games Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.16: Selected Boating and Fishing Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.17: Selected Sports and Outdoor Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.18: Selected Home Lifestyle Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1993-1995

Table 7.19: Selected Gardening Magazines - Average Net Sales per Publishing Day, January to June 1994 and 1995

Table 7.20: Leading Market Sectors for Business and Professional Magazines Ranked by Number of Titles, October 1995

Table 7.21: Business Magazine Market Sectors Ranked by Display Advertising Revenue (£m), 1995

Table 7.22: Leading General Business Magazines - Average Net Circulation, 1990-1995

Table 7.23: Circulation of Selected Computing Magazines - Average Net Circulation, 1990-1994

Table 7.24: Circulation of Selected Engineering Magazines - Average Net Circulation, January to December 1990-1994

Table 7.25: Circulation of Selected Medical Magazines - Average Net Circulation, 1990-1995

Table 7.26: Circulation of Leading Grocery and Licensing Magazines - Average Net Circulation, July 1994 to June 1995

Table 7.27: Circulation of Leading Agricultural and Farming Magazines - Average Net Circulation, 1990-1995

Table 7.28: Circulation of Selected Electronics Magazines - Average Net Circulation, January to December 1992-1994

Table 7.29: Circulation of Leading Financial Services Magazines - Average Net Circulation, July 1994 to June 1995

Table 7.30: Circulation of Selected Travel Magazines - Average Net Circulation, 1992-1995

Table 7.31: Circulation of Selected Marketing Magazines, 1992-1995

Table 7.32: Circulation of Selected Architectural/Building/Construction Magazines - Average Net Circulation, 1990-1995

Company Profiles

MAJOR MEDIA GROUPS

BOOK PUBLISHERS

PERIODICAL PUBLISHERS

MAJOR PRINTERS

MAJOR RETAILERS

Future Prospects

INTRODUCTION

NEWSPAPER PUBLISHING

MAGAZINE PUBLISHING

BOOK PUBLISHING

Table 9.1: Forecast of UK Publishers Sales by Sector (£m), 1996-2000

Further Sources

ASSOCIATIONS

PERIODICALS

DIRECTORIES

GENERAL SOURCES

HBI UK INFORMATION SOURCES

GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

OTHER SOURCES

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• INTRODUCTION
• MAGAZINES
• NEWSPAPERS
• BOOKS
• CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR
• THE FUTURE

INTRODUCTION

This report looks at the publishing market in the UK. The total market in 1997 was £12.29bn according to Key Note estimates. Newspapers accounted for 41.5 percent of this market, periodicals for 35.9 percent and books 22.5 percent. Publishing is the UK's seventh largest industry by sales value. The UK has the second largest publishing industry in Europe.

Most of this industry is UK owned. Two national newspaper groups are foreign owned (News International and the Telegraph Group), a handful of magazine companies are owned by foreign companies (National Magazine Company, Conde Nast, Gruner & Jahr, Bauer and the Readers' Digest Association), and some book publishers also have foreign owners (Harper Collins, Macmillan, Random House UK and Transworld). The rest of the industry is almost totally in the hands of UK companies.

Since 1987, the industry has seen substantial growth in the number of book, magazine and newspaper titles, although in the case of newspapers, title numbers are actually decreasing.

MAGAZINES

The magazine market has been characterised by extraordinarily high growth. The total number of titles has increased by 43.8 percent since 1985, from 4,928 to 7,088. In the consumer sector, leisure titles make up the majority, from sport and travel to motoring and music and film, but in terms of readership, it is women's interest and listings titles that have the highest sales.

There has been a big gender shift in consumer magazine titles in the last decade. Whereas magazines for women once seemed to enjoy the most prominence, they are now being joined by a growing number of titles for men. The new men's titles include: general interest titles, fitness and sports titles, not to mention additional titles in motoring and computing. FHM Magazine, for instance, now has sales of over 640,000, which is way ahead of most women's titles. The success of FHM epitomises this new trend in the market.

The business and professional magazines are to a large extent showing declining readerships. A key exception is the sector devoted to marketing, advertising and design, where readerships have been rising.

The major event in the industry has been the sale of IPC Magazines to its management and financial backers in January 1998. IPC has leading titles in every field of consumer magazine publishing, so its development can impact on the rest of the indsutry. IPC Magazines says that it is planning to launch 30 new titles over the next 3 to 4 years.

NEWSPAPERS

Every week over 126 million newspapers are read in the UK. This includes free newspapers. Around 100 million are national newspapers. Back in 1993, around 132 newspapers were read each week. Almost all the slippage since 1993 has been in the regional press.

In 1994/1995, four out of the big five regional press companies seeing these trends decided to quit the market. Since then the profits of regional newspapers have improved, and also, in 1997 at least, circulation levels have stabilised. Consolidation in the regional press is producing cost savings and higher profits.

In the national press there have been three key features:

* improved sales for the total daily paper market

* exceptionally high sales on Saturdays

* a decline in the Sunday market.

Two newspaper groups are seeing their circulations continue to fall. They are Express Newspapers and Newspaper Publishing. Newspaper Publishing, which publishes The Independent and theIndependent on Sunday, was bought early in 1998 by Independent Newspapers of Dublin.

Prices have become much more important than they were in 1994. All newspapers are aware of this. News International's pricing policy is now the subject of a study by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), after complaints by other newspapers that it was acting unfairly, using its dominant market position and its revenues from other businesses to undercut its newspaper rivals.

BOOKS

The UK book market weathered well during the recession between 1990 and 1992, but does not seem to have benefited very much from the recovery afterwards. Recently-released figures from the Publishers Association suggest that the market grew by 8.8 percent between 1993 and 1997. The consumer book sector, which accounts for 66.8 percent of the market, grew the fastest, but only by 9.4 percent. After taking inflation into account, this means that the market hardly grew at all.

These figures explain why a company like Reed Elsevier decided to get out of consumer book publishing and focus exclusively on specialist professional titles, especially in law and medicine. The figures also underline the research by Plimsoll that showed 56 percent of booksellers are in financial difficulties.

Since 1995, there have been some developments. Title output has begun to slow down and the Net Book Agreement (NBA -- which fixed retail book prices) has been dissolved. Although the end of the NBA has led to some price discounting, principally by supermarkets and some large bookshops, book prices, in general, have not come down.

Key Note's Gallup survey shows that the number of people buying one or two books a year has increased marginally since 1996. This may be related to the wider practice of discounting, but this is not clear.

CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR

The Gallup survey of newspaper and book buying showed some interesting trends. The key ones were:

* the three characteristics of a paper that most attracts readers are: quality of reporting, features, and TV and radio listings

* features and supplements are extremely important to younger readers, i.e. those aged 16 to 24

* 37 percent of people surveyed said price was influential in their choice of newspaper

* among men, the three most important factors in their choice of paper are: quality of reporting, sports coverage and features

* among women, the top three influencers are: quality of reporting, features and listings

* in the book sector, the highest rated types of book are: thrillers, history and biography

* among men, the highest rated kind of books are: history, biography, thrillers and do-it-yourself (DIY)

* among women, the most popular kinds of book are: biography, cookery, thrillers, gardening, history and romance.

THE FUTURE

The market overall will grow by 21.8 percent between 1998 and the year 2002, with the fastest growth coming from magazines. Output of magazines will rise by 15.3 percent between 1998 and 2002, but output of books will fall from just over 100,000 in 1997 to 96,000 in 2002. Newspaper titles can be expected to contract by 10 percent.

There will be some changes of ownership. In the book sector, Harper Collins is likely to have a new owner by the year 2000, while in the newspaper sector Trinity, Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) and Newsquest are all expected to make further acquisitions.

WH Smith recently bought John Menzies' retail outlets, thus creating an even bigger chain of newsagents. In specialist book retailing, Waterstones and Dillons have joined forces, and Books Etc has been bought by the big US book retailer Borders. So in the near future, the retailing of published goods is likely to undergo a very big change. WH Smith knows it has to adapt if it is to survive, and this understanding is bound to alter the way it markets magazines and newspapers. Meanwhile, the big bookshops are going to become social and entertainment centres, as well as bookshops -- this has started to happen already, and the next few years will see it becoming more pronounced.

Text © 1997 Key Note

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