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Pressure on higher education funding, the shift to digital, and changing retail patterns are all being cited as reasons for the year-on-year sales drop experienced by nearly of all the major academic publishers this autumn.
Nielsen BookScan Total Consumer Market (TCM) statistics for the eight weeks to 3rd November 2012, covering the busy "back to university" period, show most experienced single- and double-digit year-on-year revenue falls in physical book sales (see table).
The academic market as a whole fell by 9%, to £45.5m. Revenue from the top 10 academic publishers was down 10% to £28.1m, while for smaller publishers it dropped 6% to £17.4m.
The major publishers showing the sharpest falls were Cengage (-34%), Elsevier (-20%) and McGraw-Hill (-18%). Elsevier's results are likely to have been affected by the divestment of its print-heavy Focal list to Taylor & Francis in 2011, as well as its S&T UK higher education/further education list to T&F the previous year.
Some publishers, however, did show revenue rises, including 3% year-on-year lifts for Open University Press and Sweet & Maxwell, although the latter's performance is likely to be largely accounted for by sales to the steadier professional market.
A spokesperson for Pearson, which saw a 12% fall year on year, said: "Like all publishers, we are finding the UK market challenging given changes in higher education funding. However in other regions, such as Scandinavia, sales are holding up well. It is vital that one bears in mind that these statistics only apply to physical books and are therefore not truly representative of our sales figures."
At Cengage, group sales director Andrew Robinson said the publisher's product and channel mix in the UK had "evolved significantly in recent years, rendering point of sale data for standard editions a less meaningful measure of overall performance." He added: "In fact, thanks to our innovations in delivering bespoke print, digital and blended versions to students and faculty, we are pleased with the sales growth we have seen, despite the unpredictable impact of English tuition fees."
Rohan Seery, academic sales and marketing director at Cambridge University Press, said CUP had seen "significant" growth in its digital products, and added: "In print it is interesting to observe that the traditional highlight of the UK academic calendar, 'back to university', appears to have lost the usual scale of significance among customers and booksellers, with more pragmatic stocking of books coupled with cautious spending.
"Footfall continues to decline in retail while customers increase in sophistication, sourcing the best price and availability. With the explosion of the tablet, it is perhaps unsurprising that retail sales of e-books are also a key component of overall sales of academic."