In this, the fourth of a series of industry specific reports, How-Do and Business Link Northwest, have chosen to review the publishing industry, a sector which is arguably currently facing more challenges than other creative and media sectors.
A further report covering the region’s advertising industry will be published in December and the final report focusing on broadcasting will be published in January.
The six reports taken together will help increase our readers’ knowledge and inform with more accuracy, those who are interested in knowing more about the health and scale of the media and creative sectors in the North West. Collectively these six reports form a comprehensive overview of an entire regional industry that employs some 140,000 people in the North West.
In addition to statistical data which we have specifically commissioned from Experian, the author of this report, Keith Price, has also interviewed a number of regional publishing figures along with some national figures involved with industry lobby groups. The report concludes with case studies of companies who have worked with and benefited from Business Link support.
For the purposes of definition, this report focuses on the publishing that How-Do concerns itself with: newspaper, magazine and digital publishing – not book publishing.
Although the days of Manchester as an ‘alternative Fleet Street’ have long gone, the region is still home to a sizeable national newspaper presence – although printing and advertising primarily these days - together with a thriving magazine sector, a healthy digital sector and a regional newspaper industry which is at the heart of four major publishers’ operations: Guardian Media Group, Trinity Mirror Regionals, CN Group and Newsquest.
The Experian data suggests that there are 483 publishing companies based in the region representing 8.45% of the UK’s total number. Interestingly of these companies, the North West is home to 7.2% of UK publishing companies which Experian describes as large – those with 200 or more staff.
Such a high regional proportion is extremely unusual in the media world, given the UK’s enormous South East media concentration. But the figure does reflect the fact that, despite the present challenges, the ongoing strength and scale of the larger regional players combined with the innovation and commercial ambition of specialists such as Archant Life, PSCA, Ten Alps plc, Excel and the Wirral-based Newhall, there is plenty of life ahead for the North West's publishing industry.
We hope you find this special report to be of value.
How-Do and Business Link would like to thank Experian for supplying the data.
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