The World's Largest Publishers

Publishers Weekly recently posted the Livres Hebdo/Publishers Weekly’s annual ranking, based on annual revenue, of the world’s largest publishers in 2013. (You can read the full article here.)

What is interesting. though not surprising, about this list is that the top publishers are in the corporate/business sector. (Educational testing is dominated by Pearson.) 

Trade publishing is dominated by Random/Penguin (owned by Bertelsmann), followed by Hachette, Holtzbrinck (owner of St. Martin's Press), and Grupo Planeta, a Spanish media group. (After Mandarin, Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the world.)

Oxford University Press, the oldest university press in the world, and Cambridge University Press still rank in the top 50, but no other university press generated enough income to make it onto the list.

To offer some perspective, Walmart, the largest company in the world, rakes in $456 billion annually. That's 50 times more than the largest publisher (Pearson) and 150 times more than the largest trade publisher (Random/Penguin).

Rank (2013)	Rank (2012)	Publishing Company (Group or Division)	Country	Mother Corporation or Owner	Country of Mother Corporation	2013 Revenue in $M	2012 Revenue in $M
1	1	Pearson	UK	Pearson	UK	$9,330	$9,158
2	2	Reed Elsevier	UK/NL/US	Reed Elsevier	UK/NL/US	$7,288	$5,934
3	3	Thomson-Reuters	US	The Woodbridge Company Ltd.	Canada	$5,576	$5,386
4	4	Wolters Kluwer	NL	Wolters Kluwer	NL	$4,920	$4,766
5	5	Random House	Germany	Bertelsmann AG	Germany	$3,664	$3,328
6	6	Hachette Livre	France	Lagardère	France	$2,851	$2,833
7	10	Holtzbrinck	Germany	Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck	Germany	$2,222	$2,220
8	8	Grupo Planeta	Spain	Grupo Planeta	Spain	$2,161	$2,597
9	11	Cengage*	US	Apax Partners et al.	US/Canada	N/A	$1,993
10	7	McGraw-Hill Education	US	The McGraw-Hill Companies	US	$1,992	$2,292
11	9	Scholastic	US	Scholastic	US	$1,792	$2,148
12	12	Wiley	US	Wiley	US	$1,761	$1,783
13	13	De Agostini Editore*	Italy	Gruppo De Agostini	Italy	N/A	$1,724
14	22	China Publishing Group	China (PR)	Government; partly publicly listed	China (PR)	$1,499	$1,104
15	17	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt	US	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Group Ltd.	US/Cayman Islands	$1,379	$1,286
16	19	HarperCollins	US	News Corporation	US	$1,369	$1,189
17	16	Springer Science and Business Media	Germany	EQT and GIC Investors	Sweden, Singapore	$1,301	$1,298
18	21	Oxford University Press	UK	Oxford University	UK	$1,254	$1,125
19	14	Shueisha	Japan	Hitotsubashi Group	Japan	$1,191	$1,464
20	20	Informa	UK	Informa plc	UK	$1,185	$1,126
21	30	China Education and Media Group (form. Higher Education Press)	China (PR)	China Education and Media Group	China (PR)	$1,152	$702
22	15	Kodansha	Japan	Kodansha	Japan	$1,143	$1,368
23	29	Egmont Group	Denmark/Norway	Egmont International Holding A/S	Denmark	$1,101	$792
24	25	Grupo Santillana	Spain	PRISA	Spain	$1,020	$985
25	18	Shogakukan	Japan	Hitotsubashi Group	Japan	$1,011	$1,254
26	26	Bonnier	Sweden	The Bonnier Group	Sweden	$976	$968
27	24	Kadokawa Publishing	Japan	Kadokawa Holdings Inc.	Japan	$900	$1,000
28	28	Simon & Schuster	US	CBS	US	$809	$790
29	32	Klett	Germany	Klett Gruppe	Germany	$622	$604
30	31	Woongjin ThinkBig	Korea	Woongjin Holding	Korea	$616	$667
31	47	Groupe Madrigall (Gallimard, Flammarion)	France	Madrigall	France	N/A	N/A
32	38	Lefebvre-Sarrut	France	Frojal	France	$559	$447
33	34	Readers Digest*	US	RDA Holding Co.	US	N/A	$533
34	36	Messagerie / GeMS	Italy	Messagerie Italiane	Italy	$543	$491
35	37	Media Participations	France	Media Participations	Belgium	$481	$455
36	35	Mondadori	Italy	The Mondadori Group	Italy	$462	$511
37	33	Cornelsen	Germany	Cornelsen	Germany	$456	$577
38	43	Cambridge University Press	UK	Cambridge University Press	UK	$433	$396
39	41	Perseus*	USA	Perseus	USA	N/A	$425
40	42	Sanoma	Finland	Sanoma WSOY	Finland	$422	$426
41	44	Westermann Verlagsgruppe	Germany	Medien Union	Germany	$401	$361
42	40	Harlequin	Canada	Torstar Corp.	Canada	$374	$428
43	49	Kyowon	Korea	Kyowon	Korea	$353	$322
44	48	RCS Libri	Italy	RCS Media Group	Italy	$348	$333
45	55	EKSMO-AST (since 2012: EKSMO)	Russia	Privately owned	Russia	$343	$232
46	45	La Martinière Groupe	France	La Martinière Groupe	France	$329	$351
47	53	Weka	Germany	Weka Firmengruppe	Germany	$316	$258
48	51	Haufe Gruppe	Germany	Privately owned	Germany	$315	$291
49	52	OLMA Media Group	Russia	Privately owned	Cyprus	$306	$257
50	27	Gakken	Japan	Gakken Co. Ltd.	Japan	$297	$937
51	50	Bungeishunju	Japan	N/A	Japan	$253	$298
52	54	Shinchosha	Japan	Privately owned	Japan	N/A	$245
53	57	Editions Atlas	France	Gruppo De Agostini	Italy	N/A	$230
54	58	Groupe Albin Michel	France	Groupe Albin Michel	France	$232	$224
55	39	Abril Educação	Brazil	Abril group	Brazil	$216	$203
56	56	Saraiva	Brazil	Saraiva	Brazil	$215	$230

*2013 placement estimated based on 2012 revenue