Posted Monday, May 16, 2005
PRESS RELEASE
New Study Predicts Robust Growth in the Religious and Elhi Market Segments
Just off the press, Book Industry TRENDS 2005 estimates total publishers’ net revenues in 2004 reached $28.6 billion, up 2.8 percent over the previous year. TRENDS 2005 predicts that over the next five years total book industry revenues will increase 18.3 percent, paced by religious books with a 50 percent rise. Other categories in which revenues are expected to grow include mass market paperbacks (16.9 percent), adult trade books (12.3 percent), and professional books (11.6 percent). Mail order is the only sector projected to experience continuous declines.
Religious books have emerged as the most impressive growth category in the book publishing industry over the past four years and according to TRENDS 2005, the category – including hardcover and paperback Bibles, biblical studies, testaments, histories, spiritual titles, hymnals, and prayer books, along with other titles pertaining to religion, inspirational titles, and religious fiction - recorded the biggest gains in 2004; with an 11 percent increase reaching $1.9 billion in sales.
"The growth of religious-book sales at mainstream retailers is the key factor behind the dollar growth of 11 percent in the sector in 2004 and behind BISG’s projections for steady growth over the next several years," stated Jim Milliot, Senior Editor for Business and News at Publishers Weekly and author of the TRENDS 2005 introductory essays. "While price increases played a part, units were up 8.5 percent in 2004, and BISG projects that they will increase at a better than 6 percent rate through 2007."
Also of note within TRENDS 2005 is the elhi sector for which 2005 is expected to be a banner year. According to the publication, a buoyant adoption calendar, healthy state budgets, and federal funding for reading and testing will all contribute to a 15 percent sales increase in 2005 and more gains to follow. It addition to the revenue increase, it is anticipated that total elhi units will surge by 12 percent, hitting 178.2 million. A more moderate increase in revenues is projected for 2006 (3.4 percent), and a more traditional growth pattern is expected for 2007, 2008, and 2009.
"We’re extremely excited about the information gathered within TRENDS 2005," said Jeff Abraham, Executive Director of the Book Industry Study Group. "Projections in this edition extend through 2009, and improvements include some changes that you can see right away. We’ve added an executive summary of insights gleaned from interviews with more than two dozen publishing professionals, and we have had layouts and graphics redesigned to facilitate access to and use of the substantial volume of information contained within these 250 pages."
Robert M. Wharton and Albert N. Greco, senior researchers at The Institute for Publishing Research, provided the data and the analyses of data in this volume. Robert Wharton is also a professor and chair of the Department of Management Sciences at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business Administration. Albert Greco is the author of The Book Publishing Industry and the co-editor of Media Economics: Theory and Practice, as well as a professor of marketing at Fordham’s Graduate School of Business Administration.
Book Industry TRENDS has been tracking publishers’ dollar and unit sales for 28 years. TRENDS numbers are quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, Business Week, Publishers Weekly, and many other periodicals that serve book industry professionals, who rely on TRENDS as they plan for the future.
TRENDS 2005 covers the years 1999 through 2009, with new data for 2004 anchoring data for five years of history and five years of projections, and with reports on trends and developments that leading publishers and booksellers identify as significant.
Determining publishers’ net revenues and units, publishers’ average dollars per unit, domestic consumer expenditures, and the other sets of figures in this edition of TRENDS involved investigating econometric datasets, annual reports, detailed financial analyses, major studies about specific segments of the book industry; and U.S. Government reports, among other sources. After reviewing all available data, Professors Greco and Wharton ran more than 74,000 separate calculations to generate the TRENDS 2005 statistical tables.
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About the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) is the industry’s leading trade association for policy, standards, and research. Membership consists of publishers, manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, librarians, and others engaged in the business of print and electronic media. For over 25 years, BISG has provided a forum for all industry professionals to come together and efficiently address issues and concerns to advance the book community.
The member-driven organization uniquely represents all segments of our industry from publishers and e-publishers to paper manufacturers, libraries, authors, printers, wholesalers, retailers and e-tailers, as well as organizations concerned with the book community as a whole.
Learn more about BISG at www.bisg.org.
Religious books have emerged as the most impressive growth category in the book publishing industry over the past four years and according to TRENDS 2005, the category – including hardcover and paperback Bibles, biblical studies, testaments, histories, spiritual titles, hymnals, and prayer books, along with other titles pertaining to religion, inspirational titles, and religious fiction - recorded the biggest gains in 2004; with an 11 percent increase reaching $1.9 billion in sales.
"The growth of religious-book sales at mainstream retailers is the key factor behind the dollar growth of 11 percent in the sector in 2004 and behind BISG’s projections for steady growth over the next several years," stated Jim Milliot, Senior Editor for Business and News at Publishers Weekly and author of the TRENDS 2005 introductory essays. "While price increases played a part, units were up 8.5 percent in 2004, and BISG projects that they will increase at a better than 6 percent rate through 2007."
Also of note within TRENDS 2005 is the elhi sector for which 2005 is expected to be a banner year. According to the publication, a buoyant adoption calendar, healthy state budgets, and federal funding for reading and testing will all contribute to a 15 percent sales increase in 2005 and more gains to follow. It addition to the revenue increase, it is anticipated that total elhi units will surge by 12 percent, hitting 178.2 million. A more moderate increase in revenues is projected for 2006 (3.4 percent), and a more traditional growth pattern is expected for 2007, 2008, and 2009.
"We’re extremely excited about the information gathered within TRENDS 2005," said Jeff Abraham, Executive Director of the Book Industry Study Group. "Projections in this edition extend through 2009, and improvements include some changes that you can see right away. We’ve added an executive summary of insights gleaned from interviews with more than two dozen publishing professionals, and we have had layouts and graphics redesigned to facilitate access to and use of the substantial volume of information contained within these 250 pages."
Robert M. Wharton and Albert N. Greco, senior researchers at The Institute for Publishing Research, provided the data and the analyses of data in this volume. Robert Wharton is also a professor and chair of the Department of Management Sciences at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business Administration. Albert Greco is the author of The Book Publishing Industry and the co-editor of Media Economics: Theory and Practice, as well as a professor of marketing at Fordham’s Graduate School of Business Administration.
Book Industry TRENDS has been tracking publishers’ dollar and unit sales for 28 years. TRENDS numbers are quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, Business Week, Publishers Weekly, and many other periodicals that serve book industry professionals, who rely on TRENDS as they plan for the future.
TRENDS 2005 covers the years 1999 through 2009, with new data for 2004 anchoring data for five years of history and five years of projections, and with reports on trends and developments that leading publishers and booksellers identify as significant.
Determining publishers’ net revenues and units, publishers’ average dollars per unit, domestic consumer expenditures, and the other sets of figures in this edition of TRENDS involved investigating econometric datasets, annual reports, detailed financial analyses, major studies about specific segments of the book industry; and U.S. Government reports, among other sources. After reviewing all available data, Professors Greco and Wharton ran more than 74,000 separate calculations to generate the TRENDS 2005 statistical tables.
About the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) is the industry’s leading trade association for policy, standards, and research. Membership consists of publishers, manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, librarians, and others engaged in the business of print and electronic media. For over 25 years, BISG has provided a forum for all industry professionals to come together and efficiently address issues and concerns to advance the book community.
The member-driven organization uniquely represents all segments of our industry from publishers and e-publishers to paper manufacturers, libraries, authors, printers, wholesalers, retailers and e-tailers, as well as organizations concerned with the book community as a whole.
Learn more about BISG at www.bisg.org.