Book publishers
Among German fiction and non-fiction publishing houses, the three leading players were Random House, Carlsen, and Bastei Lübbe. Random House is part of the international publishing group Penguin Random House. In turn, it includes 47 other publishing companies and is among the most successful publishing companies on a national level in Germany. The Bastei Lübbe group is actually a media company existing in the form of a trade publisher. All three houses publish books in a variety of genres, as well as audiobooks, e-books, and other digital media, though Carlsen is known in particular for its children's and young adult literature. In 2020, the German book trade generated an estimated 9.3 billion euros in revenue.Newspapers and magazines
One of the challenges confronting the newspaper market and, consequently, publishers, is falling circulation, with daily newspapers suffering year after year. Although in 2022, there was a small uptake in the number of newspapers sold. A growing number of newspaper publishers in Germany offer paid content accessible online, which reflects the fact that selling printed copies alone is no longer enough to ensure profitability. Subscription models are also popular among news websites, where people pay a small monthly fee and can access exclusive articles.Some of the best-known magazine publishers in Germany are (also) Axel Springer, Hubert Burda, and Gruner + Jahr. Consumer magazines typically make up a large share of magazine sales and have a high reach. The print industry, however, is becoming less popular and replaced by online sources. Therefore, just like newspapers, numerous titles on the German magazine market record quarterly circulation losses.
