INSIGHTS - OCTOBER 2024

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

27,319

Annual Sales

£48bn +

Employees

238,350

Economic Contribution 

£27bn

Tags

Location of Publishing Companies

Publishing Companies by Size

84% Micro

13% Small

2% Mid

1% Large

0% Mega

Largest Publishing Companies
Turnover
Relx Plc
£9.2bn
Capita Plc
£2.8bn
Msci Limited
£887.5m
Publishing Companies by Age
Fastest Growing Publishing Companies

40% Declining

18% Healthy

18% Rapid

13% Low

12% High

Publishing Industry Competitive Environment - New Entrants vs Leavers

Publishing Industry Valuation

EBITDA Multiple

Data only available to Pomanda Pro subscribers.

Publishing Industry Valuation

Turnover Multiple

Data only available to Pomanda Pro subscribers.

Publishing Industry Valuation

Net Asset Multiple

Data only available to Pomanda Pro subscribers.

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 27,319 active Businesses in the UK with combined annual sales of £48 billion .

The Industry employs around 238,350 people and contributes £27 billion to the economy.

The most popular location for Publishing companies is London with 10,577 and the fewest are located in Northern Ireland with 245.

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.

17% of the Publishing Industry is made up of 17% Mature but the majority are Startup businesses (29%) the oldest company is Methodist Newspaper Company Limited founded in 1863.

Publishing industry has a number of high growth companies (13%), 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 8.41x, Turnover multiple of 1.19x and a Net Asset multiple of 2.22x.