(27 January 2015, Stamford, CT) Clinical-based publishing is projected to see some of its most rapid growth in Turkey, Chile, South Korea, Mexico, Greece and Great Britain, according to the most recent report from media and publishing intelligence firm Simba Information.
The report, Global Medical Publishing 2015-2019, concludes that capturing growth and share in emerging markets will continue to be a key strategy for medical publishers and information providers — especially as declining print book and journal advertising revenue stifle the industry’s overall growth.
Simba Information’s analysis determined that the global medical publishing market was essentially flat in 2014 (-0.2%). Declining print books and journal advertising, countered continued growth in online delivery of book collections, journal site licenses and databases.
Increased journal site license revenue is good news for scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing, but for many medical journals with large circulations, subscriptions represent less than half of total sales. Unfortunately for that sector, pharma sponsorship has declined worldwide, institutional budgets are tight and individuals have been more selective in what they buy.
The outlook for medical publishing market in 2015 and beyond is grounded in sub 1% growth rates. Weakness comes from world economies, particularly those of Europe, technological blows to high-priced books and ads, and maturity for what were once young, high growth digital startups.
Global Medical Publishing 2015-2019 outlines the strategies publishers, individually and collectively, will pursue in this environment. The move to emerging markets is a natural one given a new global emphasis on research and development, as well as market maturity in the U.S. and Europe. The report found that Europe’s medical publishing market is now smaller than Asia-Pacific and rest of the developing world (outside of North America) combined.
The pharmaceutical industry has identified Brazil, Russia, India, China and Turkey as high growth national markets. A combination of rising incomes, healthcare reform and regulatory environment all play a part.
English dominates medical publishing and remains the lingua franca of medicine, particularly at the research and specialist level. But China, Brazil, South Korea and other markets have emerged as new, non-English language markets that are both important consumers and increasingly important producers of medical research. Major publishers are making their content easier to access in other languages.
Global Medical Publishing 2015-2019 provides detailed market information for medical and health care publishing, segmented by delivery medium: journals, books, online content, abstracting and indexing (A&I) and other activities (audio, video and CD-ROM). It analyzes trends impacting the industry and forecasts market growth to 2019. The report includes an in-depth review of 15 leading medical publishers, including Reed Elsevier, Wolters Kluwer, Truven Health Analytics, Springer Science+Business Media, John Wily & Sons, Igaku-Shoin, Thieme, American Medical Association, Epocrates and others. For more information on the report visit here.
