In Highgate’s Waterlow Park, London. Image – Getty: Victor Huang
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘The Desire for Escapism’
In its newly released Industry Insights 2024 report, the United Kingdom’s Publishers Association has announced that, “Audiobooks and fiction drove publishing growth in 2024.
“Audiobook revenue was £268 million (US$361.2 million)—a record high that’s 31 percent above the same figure in 2023.” In fact, digital formats are reported to have been “a key driver of growth with increased revenue across all three sectors—academic, educational, and consumer.” Fiction is reported to have risen 18 percent, bringing in revenue of more than £1 billion for the first time (US41.34 billion).
Overall, the United Kingdom’s income was up “slightly by 1 percent, to £7.2 billion (US$9.7 billion).”
And the association stresses that the British industry’s exports—critical to this market—are understood to have been up 3 percent over 2023, producing £4.5 billion (US$6.1), some 63 percent of the industry’s income. Destinations for British exports were led by the United States (up 23 percent in 2024); Australia (up 9 percent); and Germany (up 4 percent).
Dan Conway
In his comments on the release of this upbeat report—at least for the trade—the association’s CEO, Dan Conway, is quoted, saying, “It’s fantastic to see fiction, audiobooks, and digital thrived in 2024.
“Clearly publishers have been giving booklovers what they want with engaging content in a range of formats. Fiction growth has been driven by fantasy and romance. The desire for escapism in these tumultuous times may be a factor in the recent success of these genres.
“While consumer publishing had a strong 2024, it’s more of a concerning picture for education and academic book publishing, particularly in the UK market. This reflects the funding challenges right across the education sector.”
“However, it’s worth noting that while print is down in both education and academic sectors, digital is still growing.”
An informational graphic produced as part of the UK’s ‘Publishing in 2024’ report. Image: PA
More Concern ‘for Education and Academic Publishing’
What Conway is looking at is the educational sector’s overall revenue tally for 2024 of £639 million (US$861.9), down 3 percent, and an academic sector revenue total of £3.5 billion (US$4.72 billion), down 1 percent.
In terms of discussion of these less felicitous returns in educational and academic publishing, the association provides some notes.
On the educational side, the discussion of the academic sector reads, “Total revenue was down in the academic sector. Breaking this down, while academic books revenue was down, academic journals revenue was up.
“Academic revenue is driven by export market growth, which demonstrates the esteem that UK research is held in globally and the key role academic publishing plays within the research ecosystem. Journals were up, with digital growing by 4 percent.”
Quick Points
Finally, in some last highlights:
- Print revenue was £2 billion (up 2 percent)
- Digital revenue was £566 million (up 17 percent)
- Nonfiction revenue was £1.1 billion (down 4 percent)
- Children’s revenue was £413 million (static)
A summary of the information from the report is here.
More from Publishing Perspectives on industry statistics is here, more on the work of the Publishers Association is here, more on audiobooks is here, and more on the United Kingdom market is here.