Publishing: Typical employers

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Big players

Publishing in the UK is dominated by European and global business conglomerations. They may own a portfolio of media businesses that includes a publishing house with operations in the UK. Examples include:

• AOL Time Warner (US) - owns Virago, Orbit and Little, Brown;
• Bertelsmann Media Group (German) - owns Random House;
• Group Lagardere SCA (French) - own Hatchette, Orion, Octopus;
• News Corporation (Australian) - owns Harper Collins;
• Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck (German) - owns Macmillan;
• Viacom (US) - owns Simon & Schuster;
• Pearson Plc - owns Penguin.

The UK is also home to large independent publishers such as Bloomsbury.

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A publishing house is usually made up of several divisions, each concentrating on a different area of publishing such as fiction or non-fiction. Each division manages its own subdivisions such as adult fiction or children’s fiction. These divisions or subdivisions may publish books under a separate brand name known as an imprint. Examples of the more popular imprints within the Penguin Group include Dorling Kindersley, Ladybird, Puffin and Rough Guides.

Big players in magazine and journal publishing include:

• Condé Nast;
• EMAP;
• Haymarket;
• IPC Media;
• NatMag;
• Reed Business Information;
• Reed Elsevier.

Newspaper publishers in the UK include:

• Associated Newspapers;
• Financial Times Group;
• Trinity Mirror Group.

These larger companies are more likely to operate formal graduate recruitment schemes, although the number of places offered is small - between two and ten. The role usually consists of working on rotation in the different areas of the business before choosing an area in which to specialise on a more permanent basis.

Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

SMEs are organisations with less than 250 employees and an annual turnover of around £26million. Working for a smaller company can be rewarding because you are more likely to forge a path for yourself within the company, although opportunities to try other departments may be limited.

SMEs are unlikely to use the testing and assessment techniques of larger companies, or follow lengthy recruitment procedures. SMEs are more likely to advertise their vacancies through the local press, university careers service bulletins, local graduate vacancy listings, jobcentres, and word of mouth, rather than rely on their reputation and a presence at graduate recruitment fairs.

Your university careers service should have listings of jobs with small firms; see also the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

The publishing industry has a significant number of influential small and independent publishing houses. Publishing companies can be run by one person, although smaller companies tend to employ 10-15 staff members.

Self-employment

Publishing companies typically employ freelancers for writing, graphic design, proofreading, reading manuscripts, editing and research. You complete the work in your own time and on your own premises and then invoice the company for the work you have done.

Find out more about self-employment.