April 7, 2020
AAP JANUARY 2020 STATSHOT REPORT: PUBLISHING INDUSTRY UP 3.7%
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for January 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 sales across all categories for January 2020 rose 3.7% as compared to the first month of 2019, reaching $1.1 billion.
Trade (Consumer) Revenues:
Trade sales were also up 3.7%, coming in at $568 million. Downloaded Audio continued to grow, with a 14.6% increase as compared to January of last year, reaching $50 million in revenue. eBooks continued to decline, down 6.5% as compared to January 2019 for a total of $75 million.
Education Categories:
In the education sector, Higher Education Course Materials grew 2.7% year-over-year to $433 million, while PreK-12 Instructional Materials grew 3.8% to $58 million.
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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.