Market trends in 2019

In Italy the Trade book market grew by 5.5% in value terms in 2019 compared to the previous year (+4% in volume terms). In absolute terms, market growth was therefore €65 million.

The sales channels showed quite different trends:

  • book chains and e-commerce (71.2% of the market) recorded an increase of +8.3%, driven by the online component;
  • independent bookstores (22.1% of the market) saw a fall of -1.3%;
  • large-scale distribution (6.7% of the market) closed in line with the previous year.

In 2019 the e-book market recorded a slight increase and confirmed its overall book market penetration of around 5%.

The school publishing market in 2019 showed an overall upward trend (+2.2%) with increases in the Secondary, Lower and Upper Secondary segments and stability in the Primary segment.

In the magazine sector, 2019 showed the following trends:

  • the advertising market in December recorded an overall drop of -5.1% (-0.9% including Digital OTT estimate), with growth in the Digital (+3.5%, +8.3% including Digital OTT estimate) and Radio (+1.7%) channels. Magazines reported a decline of -13.9%, newspapers -10.0% and TV -5.3%;
  • the circulation market for magazines declined by -12.4%;
  • the market for add-ons recorded a negative performance of -11.9%.

Market's evolution

FY199M191H191Q19FY189M181H181Q18FY179M171H171Q17FY169M16
Trade books +5.5% +4.6% +4.0% +0.8% -1.1%-0.4%-0.1%4.1%5.4%2.3%1.3%-0.4%0.7%2.3%
  • Bookstore chains and e-commerce*
 +8.3%+7.5% +6.9% +0.8% -1.1% -1.3%-1.2%0.8%2.7%1.9%1.4%0.2%2.4%4.9%
  • Independent bookstores
-1.3% -1.5% -0.6% -2.6% -2.7% -3.5%-3.2%-1.3%-2.0%-4.1%-4.8%-7.3%-6.5%-1.1%
  • E-commerce
 – – – +10.6% 8.5% 12.9%11.6%21.6%37.3%24.6%21.4%23.7%15.6%17.0%
  • Large retailers
 0.0% -3.4% -8.0% -17.3% -18.7% -16.7%-12.5%-4.5%-12.2%-14.2%-15.4%-20.3%-15.7%-13.1%
Magazines Italy
  • Circulation**
 -12.4% -12.3% -12.3% -13.5% -8.6% -9.0%-9.1%-9.3%-10.6%-11.9%-12.7%-11,5%-10.6%-8.3%
  • Advertising

Print

 -13.9% -15.2% -15.4% -13.1%  -8.2% -8.9%-8.6%-11.0%-6.2%-7.0%-6.1%-7.7%-4.0%-3.6%

Web

 +3.5% +2.1% +2.0% +3.0% 4.5% 4.0%2.1%2.5%1.7%-1.0%0.6%-2.6%-2.3%-1.6%
  • Add ons
 -11.9% -7.9% -6.9% -5.6% -18.2%  -10.8%-16.4%-19.5%-21.9%-27.7%-29.7%-26.8%-12.8%-6.7%

* As of May 2019, GfK expanded its coverage panel by increasing the survey of e-commerce operators; as a result, the overall market value and the relative yoy differences were re-profiled and the details by channel were revised by merging book chains and e-commerce.

* Starting from 1H 2016, the % variations refer to the whole circulation market trends (newstands + subscriptions)

Sources
Trade book: GFK (value)
Magazine Italy: circulation, internal estimate (value) – advertising, Nielsen (value)