AAP April 2020 StatShot: Publishing Industry Declines 3.5% for Month, Flat Year-to-Date

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for April 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 April 2020 declined 3.5% as compared to April 2019, reaching $783.9 million. Year-to-date sales were flat with an increase of 0.7%, totaling $3.4 billion for the first four months of 2020.

Trade sales were down 6.6% as compared to April of 2019, coming in at $548.8 million. Year-to-date Trade sales were flat at +0.5%, totaling $2.2 billion for the first four months of the year.

Physical paper formats in the Trade (consumer publications) category saw declines during the month, with hardback revenues falling by 12.9%, Paperback declining by 8.7%., Mass Market down 15.9%, and Board Book revenues dropping 3.2%. Overall, physical formats declined by 11.0% for the month, coming in at $385.6 million. On a year-to-date basis, physical formats were flat, down 0.3%, and coming in at $1.6 billion.

Downloaded Audio continued to grow during the month of April, with an 8.0% increase as compared to April of last year, reaching $52.3 million in revenue. On a year-to-date basis, Downloaded Audio was up 14.8% as compared to the first four months of 2019, with a total of $204.8 million for the year so far. The Downloaded Audio format has seen continuous growth every month since 2012.

eBook revenues jumped 10.7% as compared to April 2019 for a total of $92.9 million, bucking a long-standing trend of monthly declines. On a year-to-date basis, eBooks declined 1.1%, coming in at $325.1 million for the first four months of 2020.

In the education sector, revenues from Higher Education Course Materials jumped 139.8% to $47.6 million compared to April of last year. It should be noted that this net sales increase is being driven by a significant fall in returns, down 57.9% for the month. AAP expects an increase in returns in future months as stores, distributors, colleges and universities re-open. Year-to-date revenues were up 7.1%, coming in at $641.5 million.

PreK-12 Instructional Materials dropped 1.2% to $129.4 million compared to April of last year, and year-to-date revenues in the category fell 5.6%, coming in at $344.8 million.

Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, declined 25.9% for the month, generating $26.7 million, and declined 3.5% year-to-date, with $142.0 million in revenue during the first four months.

University Presses declined 51.4% as compared to April of 2019, bringing in $1.7 million in revenue. On a year-to-date basis, University Presses declined 15.1%, bringing in $13.0 million for the first four months of 2020.
https://publishers.org/news/aap-april-2020-statshot-report-publishing-industry-declines-3-5-for-month-flat-year-to-date/

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