China Book Publishing Industry Market Foresight and Investment Strategy Report, 2013-2017

The General Administration of Press and Publication issued the “Twelfth Five Years” Development Plan for Press and Publishing Industry (Plan for short) on April 20th, 2011. The Plan proposed that by the end of the “twelfth five years”, the total printing of book publishing will be 7.92 billion; the publications’ exporting amount will be over 11.5 million while the kinds of copyright exports will be 7 thousands; the total number of annual owned book is 5.8/per capita; the comprehensive reading rate will reach 80%; the paper consumption of books and magazines will reach 240 copies per capita; publication delivery network will be 0.13 for per thousand people; the registered copyright number will be 0.7 million. We are confident that the industry will gain a flourishing achievement with the steadily growing income, increasing cultural consumption demand, integration of digital publishing and traditional publishing, and policy guidance.

Since the reform and opening-up, China book publishing industry achieves a fast development and the scale is enlarging. In China there is only 105 book publishing early in 1978 and it grows to 415 in 1987 (the growth rate is about 300% within a decade) and 528 in 1997. Since 1998 the number of book publishing maintains stable and small increase as China strictly controls the new press. Most of the new presses are local press which reflects that the book publishing has transformed from growth of scale and amount to development of quality and efficiency.

Along with the increasing book publishing, the number of China book publishing is growing too. According to statistics: in 2010, there are 328,000 kinds of publishing books in China which increases 8.8% comparing with that in 2009; among which there are 189,000 kinds of new publishing books, up 12.5%; there are 139,000 kinds of republishing and reprinting books, up 4.5%; the total printing is 7.14 billion copies, up 1.4%; the total printed sheet is 60.47 billion, up 6.9%; the total pricing is 93.09 billion Yuan, up 9.8%. And the total book publishing output is 56.19 billion Yuan, up 17.6% comparing with that in 2009; the added value is 21.51 billion Yuan, up 14.1%; the sales revenue is 53.79 billion Yuan, up 16.2%; the gross benefit is 7.72 billion Yuan, up 3.1%.

In the meantime, the system reform of publishing industry achieves a great success. By July, 2011, for the 182 presses belong to central department and 268 local presses, the reconstruction has been initially finished and they become the main market players which with company-system. Tens of central and local presses have formed joint stock companies while 15 publishing and media companies are accelerating their listing.

Part of the presses also has a further reconstruction and merger after transform. For example, China Publishing Group has successfully reconstructed the China Democracy and Legal System Press which belongs to the NPC General Office and Huawen Publishing House which belongs to the United Front Work Department of CPC Central Committee; the Red Flag Press and the Zhejiang Daily Newspaper Group together reconstructed the Red Flag Press Limited Company; China's Aviation Industry Group and China Federation of Literary and Art reconstructed the framework agreement which approved by China Federation of Literary and Art Press and Popular Culture & Arts Publishing House; China Record Corporation reconstructed the China Drama Press which belongs to China Federation of Literary and Art.

Moreover, the capital operation of publishing industry is frequent while more venture capital is involved in the book publishing industry. In 2010, there are 7 listing corporations of China publishing industries: in January, the first unit of the National Xinhua Bookstore system within the territory—Anhui New Media has been listed; in October, as a full industrial chain with the listed overall IPO, Zhongnan media landed A shares of the main board market; in December, “the first share of private publishing media”, TANGEL publishing landed the GEM in Shenzhen stock market; in the same month, Dangdang was listed in New York Stock Exchange. Besides, the Jiangxi Publishing Group, Zhejiang Daily Newspaper Industry and Hubei Yangtze River Publishing and Media Group have a backdoor listing. On November 28th, 2011, Shandong Publishing and Media Corporation was founded which means a stage breakthrough for group stock listed issue. And the Jiangsu Phoenix Publishing & Media Corporation Limited was listed in Shanghai Exchange on November 30th, 2011. On March 26th, 2012, the “ST Yuanfa 600757” formally renamed as “Yangtze River Media”. Therefore, Yangtze River Publishing and Media Co., Ltd successfully completed the listing legal proceedings.

The General Administration of Press and Publication issued the “Twelfth Five Years” Development Plan for Press and Publishing Industry (Plan for short) on April 20th, 2011. The Plan proposed that by the end of the “twelfth five years”, the total printing of book publishing will be 7.92 billion; the publications’ exporting amount will be over 11.5 million while the kinds of copyright exports will be 7 thousands; the total number of annual owned book is 5.8/per capita; the comprehensive reading rate will reach 80%; the paper consumption of books and magazines will reach 240 copies per capita; publication delivery network will be 0.13 for per thousand people; the registered copyright number will be 0.7 million. We are confident that the industry will gain a flourishing achievement with the steadily growing income, increasing cultural consumption demand, integration of digital publishing and traditional publishing, and policy guidance.

Qianzhan Business Information Co., Ltd. Industry Research College
Research Team of Book Publishing Industry