On the face of it, not much has changed in education publishing over the years. Major textbook publishers are still the world’s most profitable publishers. The top five players still have an 85 percent stake in an industry that is worth a dizzying estimated $14bn a year in the US alone.
While nobody can contest the fact that this market is both highly lucrative and ripe for disruption, to date major education publishers haven’t really had to fight the same gruelling battles as their trade and academic cousins. Printed textbook sales and rentals still constitute 87 percent of the overall market and the widespread adoption of e-textbooks, which seemed almost certain to unsettle textbook publishers’ hegemony, has been “just around the corner” for quite some time now.