PA warns on copyright as new figures show value of exports

The Publishers Association has reiterated calls for copyright rules to remain in place as new figures show nearly two-thirds of the UK’s publishing industry’s income in 2020 came from exports, despite the turmoil of Covid-19.

The newly released 2020 Yearbook from the PA has revealed export income remained largely unchanged last year despite the pandemic, with book sales up in the UK’s three biggest export markets. Education exports declined significantly while fiction fared well in export markets. 

In the introduction of the 111-page report, Stephen Lotinga pictured right, c.e.o. of the PA, writes: “2020 was challenging on an unprecedented scale, as the world experienced a global pandemic and the myriad, significant challenges associated with it. Once again, the publishing industry rallied—demonstrating its value beyond all doubt.”

Nearly two-thirds (58%) of the UK’s publishing income came from exports (accounting for £3,722m worth of £6,390m), two percentage points lower than in 2019, though considering a long-term view, this is in line with five years ago. Across total invoiced value of consumer sales, exports accounted for a third (32%) in 2020 at £675m worth of £2,121m, again a similar proportion to that seen across 2016.   

Looking at the geographical spread, there was an 8% decrease in the overall invoiced value of UK publisher exports—print and digital combined—in 2020, driven by a fall in sales to the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, Spain, India, South Africa and Saudi Arabia. By contrast, books sales to the UK’s biggest export markets—the US, Australia and Germany—rose, as did sales to China, Japan, Sweden and Canada rose.

The US accounted for 14% of the total invoiced value of combined print and digital exports in 2020, just ahead of Australia (13%), with both destinations gaining two percentage points since 2018. Germany remained in third place in 2020, with an 8% share. Outside the top 15 destinations, there were also increases in exports in 2020 to Poland, South Korea and Hong Kong. 

The fall in the invoiced value of UK publisher export sales in 2020 was also attributed to double-digit decreases in revenue from exports of school and ELT books (a 21% drop for school books and ELT books combined from £667m to £528m), with a smaller drop for academic and professional book exports, according to the report. Exports of education books fell by more than a quarter (a 27% decrease) between 2019 and 2020 from £482m to £352m. Exports accounted for 69% of the total invoiced value of education sales in 2020, five percentage points lower than in 2019, but higher than the 65% figure recorded in 2016.  

Fiction fared better with exports up 8% in 2020 from £213m to £231m, with marginal (1%–2%) increases for non-fiction and reference and children’s books.  

Lotinga told The Bookseller: “It’s important to note that—despite the Covid-19 pandemic—nearly two-thirds of our industry’s income in 2020 came from exports. The importance of exporting is hard to overstate. It was not just people in the UK turning to books and educational resources last year, but people around the world.”

He said the export figures added further weight to the Save Our Books campaign, formed in response to The Intellectual Property Office’s recent consultation on copyright rules used for exporting books around the world.

The PA says a post-Brexit move towards an international exhaustion regime would cause a crisis for the UK industry with a projected loss of up to £2.2bn per year, warning small and medium sized businesses would be unlikely to survive and widespread job losses would occur.   

Lotinga said: “Our current copyright laws have enabled us as an industry to thrive and we at the Publishers Association will continue to work with our Save Our Books campaign partners to urge the government to make the right choice on copyright.”     

The report’s launch follows a summary released in April which showed that total publishing income rose 2% to £6.4bn, buoyed by a digital surge that helped offset a 6% decline in print sales. Home sales income rose 4% to £2.5bn in 2020 while export sales income remained largely the same year on year at £3.7bn, despite the challenges of Covid-19. The PA’s 2020 Yearbook is available for free to members and will be available for non-members to purchase.