29 April 2009

PA REPORT SHOWS TOUGH YEAR IN 2008

UK trade publishers "took a beating" last year, with 20 of the last 26 weeks of 2008 down on the previous year, according to Pan Macmillan m.d Anthony Forbes Watson

Figures released by the Publishers Association show that trade publishers' encouraging start to the year was wiped out in the second half to end 2.9% down in value, although 0.7% up by volume. This compared with respective drops of 1.6% and 0.1% across the whole sector in the UK.

The PA figures, released earlier in the year, showed that UK publishers sold an estimated 855m books in 2008, with an invoiced value of £2990m, into the UK and export markets. These figures were almost identical to those recorded in 2007, with growth in export sale helping to arrest the decline in the value of sales in the UK.

Paperback unit sales increased by 4.1% on 2007, while hardback units declined 7.3%, bucking a growth trend of the previous two years. In value terms, paperbacks edged up 1.3% while hardbacks dropped 15.4%. Over the last five years, the PA figures showed paperback sales had grown by double-digits both in unit terms and value terms - 13.2% and 11.3% respectively - while hardback figures declined 0.3%.

Writing the PA Yearbook 2008, Forbes Watson, stated: "Certain trends gathered pace in 2008: the ever greater concentration on established brands, and with it the marginalisation of ever more titles without an obvious commercial hook; concentration on compelling narratives, as reference-driven categories were further eroded by online substitutes; and the continuing retreat of hardbacks. The inexorable growth of supermarket sales has been dented temporarily by the demise of Entertainment UK; Richard and Judy’s programme has disappeared from terrestrial TV, taking with it a good deal of exposure for the books they selected; and the margins on UK sales of illustrated books have been hit by dollar-denominated Asian manufacturing costs."