News and events

The UK publishing industry significantly increases the commercial and cultural value of film, television and theatre productions, acting as the foundation of the UK’s £92bn creative industries sector. Research launched today produced by Frontier Economics for the Publishers Association demonstrates the contribution of publishing to the wider creative industries. The Contribution of Publishing to the Wider…

Audiobook downloads hit a record £31 million sales last year, up 22%, according to new figures released today by the Publishers Association which mark the start of Love Audio Week. The statistics, pre-released ahead of the Publishers Association’s annual publishing yearbook, show that the audiobook market continues to boom as audio publishers across the UK…

Publishers have today called for the UK government to support new powers that would allow VAT to be removed on ebooks, audio books and online newspaper and magazine subscriptions in the UK. At a European Union meeting today (Friday), Finance ministers will discuss new proposals that would allow all member states to reduce the amount…

“Publishing is one of the major creative industries, contributing strongly to the fastest growing sector of the economy. Whilst uncertainty and change causes challenges for businesses of all kinds, our sector has responded well through diversification and innovation, and as a result, we’re in a stronger position than many predicted just a few years ago.”…

The Publishers Association launches A Blueprint for UK Publishing with 10 priorities for government at The London Book Fair. The UK Government must be steadfast in its support for ‘gold standard’ intellectual property rights and radical in its commitment to promoting digital if the £7.8bn UK publishing industry is to make the most of global…

By William Bowes, Director of Policy & General Counsel The UK government recently launched its Digital Charter, designed to make the UK a great place to operate and innovate in the digital space, while managing the risks associated with the internet. The charter will see new norms established and rules drawn up over the course of the next few years, aimed at making the internet work for…

School textbooks need to save teachers only four and a half minutes a day in order to pay for themselves, according to new independent research which suggests cutting textbook use is a false economy. With the UK school system facing real-term budget cuts of 8% by 2019/20, according to the National Audit Office, textbooks are…

Today the APPG on Publishing is announcing a call for evidence into how to maintain a world-leading publishing sector.  The publishing industry generates up to £7.8bn gross value added (GVA) for the wider economy and supports more than 70,000 jobs directly and indirectly. It is also far greater than the sum of its parts. The…

Delegates at The London Book Fair will this year hear from Andrus Ansip, Vice-President of the European Commission and European Commissioner for the Digital Single Market, on the copyright reform package, which aims to update the EU’s copyright laws for the digital age. Ansip was appointed Vice-President of the European Commission with responsibility for the…

The Publishers Association is today launching a new online toolkit for members to help them prepare for the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will introduce widespread changes to data protection laws in Europe. The resources, which have been developed for the PA by law firm Harbottle & Lewis together with technology consultancy Stigmergist,…

The Read On. Get On. (ROGO) coalition has today launched the ROGO Index – a new robust measure of children’s reading at age 11 in England [1]. The ROGO coalition has created a more holistic view of how well the nation’s children are reading by bringing together government, commercial and third sector data to indicate…

Nick Clegg, Harriet Harman and Brendan Cox have been announced as the winners of the second Parliamentary Book Awards, as voted for by MPs and members of the House of Lords. Nick Clegg won Best Non-Fiction by a Parliamentarian for How to Stop Brexit (And Make Britain Great Again), The Sunday Times Bestseller, in which…

New independent research has shown that the British publishing industry generates up to £7.8bn GVA for the wider UK economy and supports more than 70,000 jobs in direct, indirect and induced impact. The Contribution of the Publishing Industry to the UK Economy – produced by Frontier Economics for the Publishers Association and to be launched…

Harriet Harman, Nick Clegg and former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, are among the influential politicians who are on the shortlist for the inaugural Parliamentary Book Awards; the only political book awards voted for by parliamentarians. Launched by the Booksellers Association of UK and Ireland and the Publishers Association in 2016, the awards aim to…

The London Book Fair and the Publishers Association are delighted to announce that the Rt Hon Matt Hancock, Minister of State for Creative Industries and MP for West Suffolk, will be the keynote speaker at the Building Inclusivity in Publishing conference 2017.   Since his appointment to the Cabinet Office in July 2016, Matt Hancock…

The chief executive of the Chartered College of Teaching, which aims to place research and evidence ‘at the heart of learning for teachers’, Professor Dame Alison Peacock is to give the opening keynote at the PA/BESA Educational Publishing Conference.  She will speak alongside primary and secondary school teachers and headteachers and education research experts. The…

By Books in the Nick, Give a Book. Friday 6 October 2017. Books in the Nick was started by Give a Book in collaboration with Special Constable Steve Whitmore of the Metropolitan Police.  Books in the Nick supplies custody suites with books for detainees to read and keep. In 2016, the project supplied books to…

The Booksellers Association and the Publishers Association are delighted to announce that the Parliamentary Book Awards – the only book award curated by bookshops and voted on by parliamentarians – is returning this year, with submissions opening to all UK publishers from today. The awards will be presented at a ceremony at the House of…