84% Micro
13% Small
2% Mid
1% Large
0% Mega
INSIGHTS - FEBRUARY 2025
UK Publishing Industry
UK Publishing Industry Information
The publishing industry includes the publishing of books, brochures, leaflets, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, atlases, newspapers, journals, periodicals, directory and mailing lists as well as software publishing (computer games or business software).
Active Businesses
27,601
Annual Sales
£48bn +
Employees
238,193
Economic Contribution
£27bn
Tags
Location of Publishing Companies
Publishing Companies by Size
Largest Publishing Companies
Turnover
Relx Plc
£9.2bn
Pearson Plc
£3.7bn
Capita Plc
£2.8bn
Sap (Uk) Limited
£1.2bn
Dream Games Holdings Ltd
£1.2bn
Publishing Companies by Age
31% Young
25% Established
25% Startup
18% Mature
0% New
Oldest Publishing Companies
Established
Fastest Growing Publishing Companies
38% Declining
20% Healthy
18% Rapid
12% High
12% Low
Publishing Industry Competitive Environment - New Entrants vs Leavers
Publishing Industry Valuation
EBITDA Multiple
Publishing Industry Valuation
Turnover Multiple
Publishing Industry Valuation
Net Asset Multiple
Note - from March 2020 multiples are calculated monthly, prior to this they were calculated on an annual basis.
UK Publishing activities Industry Insights
There are 27,601 active Businesses in the UK with combined annual sales of £48 billion .
The Industry employs around 238,193 people and contributes £27 billion to the economy.
The most popular location for Publishing companies is London with 10,748 and the fewest are located in Northern Ireland with 250.
The largest Publishing company is Relx Plc with a turnover of £9.2bn. 84% of the industry is comprised of Micro companies with only 2% Mid companies.
18% of the Publishing Industry is made up of 18% Mature but the majority are Young businesses (31%) the oldest company is Methodist Newspaper Company Limited founded in 1863.
Publishing industry has a number of high growth companies (12%), the fastest growing company is S&p Global Commodities Uk Limited with a 3 year growth rate of 199%. Other fast growing companies include Fandom-uk, Ltd (126%), Snyk Limited (110%) and Tide Platform Ltd (103%).
The UK Publishing Industry’s valuation has been improving over the past 3 years with a current EBITDA multiple of 8.39x, Turnover multiple of 1.75x and a Net Asset multiple of 2.37x.
