June 2020 Statshot Report From Association of American Publishers: “Publishing Industry Declines 4.1% For Month; 4.2% Year to Date”

From the Association of American Publishers:

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for June 2020 reflecting reported revenue for all tracked categories, including Trade (consumer publications), K-12 Instructional Materials, Higher Education Course Materials, Professional Publishing, and University Presses.

Total revenues across all categories for June 2020 were approximately $1.4 billion, a decline of 4.1% as compared to June 2019. Year-to-date sales were $5.7 billion, a decline of 4.2% as compared to the same period last year.

Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues

Trade sales were up 24.4% year-over-year, coming in at $700.3 million. Year-to-date (January-June 2020) Trade sales were $3.6 billion, an increase of 2.8%, as compared to the same period in 2019.

In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of June, in the Trade (consumer publications) category, Hardback revenues jumped 35.2%, coming in at $227.6 million; Board Books were up 41.7%, with $12.1 million in revenue; and Paperbacks were up 22.9%, with $248.0 million in revenue. On a year-to-date basis, Hardback revenues were $1.2 billion, down 0.8%; Paperbacks were $1.2 billion, up 1.6%; and Mass Market was $108.9 million, a decline of 2.7% as compared to the first six months of 2019.

eBook and Downloaded Audio revenues continued to be strong in June, and on a year-to-date basis:

eBook revenues were up 39.0% for the month as compared to June 2019 for a total of $110.3 million. On a year-to-date basis, eBooks were up 12.7%, coming in at $544.5 million for the first six months of 2020. Notably, eBooks revenues in the Children’s and YA category saw a 132.5% jump during the month, coming in at $14.6 million. On a year-to-date basis eBooks revenues in the Children’s and YA category were up 62.4% for the first six months of the year, coming in at $61.6 million.

Downloaded Audio revenues saw a 6.2% increase as compared to June of last year, reaching $54.1 million in revenue. On a year-to-date basis, Downloaded Audio was up 14.1% as compared to the first half of 2019, with a total of $316.6 million for the year so far. The Downloaded Audio format has seen continuous growth every month since 2012.

Religious Presses

Religious press revenues were up 50.0% year-over-year in June, coming in at $51.8 million, but roughly flat on a year-to-date basis with a decline of 0.6%, with revenues of $311.4 million for the first six months of the year.

Education

Year-to-date Education revenues were down 15.9%, coming in at $1.9 billion.

Revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were down 9.7% for the month, as compared to June of 2019, coming in at $176.7 million. PreK-12 Instructional Materials revenues were down 29.7% for June 2020, with $419.8 million.  Revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were up 4.8% to $951.3 million on a year-to-date basis. PreK-12 Instructional Materials revenues were $909.4 million on a year-to-date basis, a drop of 30.3% compared to the first six months of last year.

Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, declined 12.4% during the month, coming in at $63.1 million. The category was down 5.8% for the first half of the year, with $257.3 million in revenue.

University Presses were up 29.4% as compared to June of 2019, bringing in $4.9 million in revenue. On a year-to-date basis, University Presses declined 3.5%, bringing in $21.7 million for the first six months of 2020.

About StatShot

AAP’s StatShot

Publisher net revenue, including sales to bookstores, wholesalers, direct to consumer, online retailers, etc., is tracked monthly by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and includes revenue from about 1,360 publishers, with participation subject to change over time.

StatShot reports are designed to give an up-to-date snapshot of the publishing industry using the best data currently available. The reports reflect participants’ most recent reported revenue for current and previous periods, enabling readers to compare revenue on a year-to-year basis within a given StatShot report.

It is not, however, possible to make apples-to-apples comparisons to StatShot reports issued in previous years because: a) The number of StatShot participants fluctuates over time, with the pool of participants growing or shrinking in each report and b) It is a common accounting practices for businesses, including publishers, to restate revenue numbers based on updated information. If, for example, a business learns that its revenues were greater in a given year than its reports indicated, it will restate the revenues in subsequent reports, providing information that is more up-to-date and accurate.

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Data Files, Journal Articles, News, Publishing, Reports