AAP July 2020 Statshot Report: Publishing Industry Declines 9.4% for Month; 5.8% Year-to-Date

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for July 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 revenues across all categories for July 2020 were $1.8 billion, a decline of 9.4% as compared to July 2019. Year-to-date sales were $7.5 billion, a decline of 5.8% as compared to the same period last year.

Trade (consumer books) sales were notably up 17.9% year-over-year, coming in at $689.1 million. Year-to-date (January-July 2020) Trade sales were $4.3 billion, an increase of 5.0%, as compared to the first seven months of 2019.

In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of July, in the Trade (consumer books) category, Hardback revenues jumped 47.0%, coming in at $246.0 million; Paperbacks were down 0.2%, with $211.2 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 1.1% to $23.5 million; and Board Books were up 20.4%, with $16.5 million in revenue.

On a year-to-date basis, Hardback revenues were $1.4 billion, up 5.1%; Paperbacks were $1.4 billion, up 1.4%; Mass Market was $132.4 million, a decline of 2.4%; and Board Books were $86.8 million, up 13.8% as compared to the first seven months of 2019.

eBook and Downloaded Audio revenues continued to be strong in July, as well as on a year-to-date basis:

eBook revenues were up 25.0% for the month as compared to July 2019 for a total of $103.7 million. On a year-to-date basis, eBooks were up 14.2%, coming in at $652.9 million for the first seven months of 2020. Notably, eBook revenues in the Children’s and YA category saw a 76.4% jump during the month, coming in at $11.6 million. On a year-to-date basis, eBook revenues in the Children’s and YA category were up 63.3% for the first seven months of the year, coming in at $73.2 million.

Downloaded Audio revenues saw a 24.9% increase as compared to July of last year, reaching $58.1 million in revenue. On a year-to-date basis, Downloaded Audio was up 15.6% as compared to the same period in 2019, with a total of $374.7 million for the year so far.

The Downloaded Audio format continues the long-standing trend of seeing continuous growth every month since 2012.

Religious press revenues were up 4.0% year-over-year in July, coming in at $42.5 million, but roughly flat on a year-to-date basis with a decline of 0.2%, and revenues of $358.5 million for the first seven months of the year.

Year-to-date Education revenues were down 18.7%, coming in at $2.84 billion.

Revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were down 21.9% for the month, as compared to July of 2019, coming in at $425.7 million. PreK-12 Instructional Materials revenues were down 24.9% for July 2020, at $549.3 million. Revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were down 5.2% to $1.38 billion on a year-to-date basis. PreK-12 Instructional Materials revenues were $1.46 billion on a year-to-date basis, a drop of 28.3% compared to the first seven months of last year.

Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, declined 20.3% during the month, coming in at $80.2 million. The category was down 0.7% for the first seven months of the year, with $337.2 million in revenue.

University Presses were up 18.5% as compared to July of 2019, bringing in $5.0 million in revenue. On a year-to-date basis, University Presses declined 9.0%, bringing in $26.7 million for the first seven months of 2020.
more detail at: https://publishers.org/news/aap-july-2020-statshot-report-publishing-industry-declines-9-4-for-month-5-8-year-to-date/

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