Biggest beasts

Bertelsmann has taken over as champion in the annual contest to nominate the world’s largest publisher. Publishers Weekly gives us the exciting news. Last year ThomsonReuters held first place. They are now third. Simon & Schuster do not figure in the list, for the simple reason that they have not disclosed revenue since 2023 when they were acquired by the private equity firm KKR. What’s knocking my socks off is the presence in that list of Cambridge University Press (but no Oxford). Presumably that “Assessment” bit has made a big difference! Or maybe OUP, like S&S don’t submit their numbers. Biggest publishing companies, OK. But biggest markets? Publishers Weekly discloses that India is now the world’s third biggest book publishing market, behind USA and China. The information comes from a report The India Book Market Report 2026-30, which was issued on 3 September by NielsenIQ BookData and the Federation of Indian Publishers. Highlight of the report are: India’s print book market was…