Business News

Press Release for Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2008-2009

Monday 12. May 2008 - Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2008-2009, a new strategic market report from media industry forecast and analysis firm Simba Information, projects the market for educational materials in the U.S. will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 2.5% to almost $10 billion in 2011.

The need to raise student achievement in the U.S. presents educational publishers with a good market opportunity even as optimism about the industry’s future is tempered by growing economic concerns, most prominently a difficult revenue picture in many states.

The new report examines the evolving school market and pinpoints opportunities for publishers. Simba’s in-depth analysis of market trends and publishing segments indicates the strongest-performing market segments will be textbooks, courseware, manipulatives and video, each of which Simba projects will grow more than 4% in 2008.

Textbooks continue to be the single largest market segment with estimated 2007 sales of $3.58 billion. Textbook growth in 2007 was driven by adoption opportunities in the states and an even larger adoption opportunity is expected in 2008.

“A dynamic year is on tap for the PreK-12 educational publishing industry-adoptions for the 2008-2009 school year offer significant opportunities, not only for core curriculum programs but for intervention materials in the critical grades 4-8 segment,” said Kathy Mickey, senior analyst/managing editor of Simba’s Education Group. “Competition will be intense, in part because of consolidation among the largest textbook publishers, and in part, because of states opened adoptions to publishers of electronic materials, including open source providers.”

Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2008-2009 contains detailed profiles of 22 publishers that play a leading role in supplying instructional materials to schools.