2025 did not open well for Italian publishing
Bad news on the Italian publishing front. In fact, the AIE research has come out, which photographs the situation of the sector in our country. And the figures for the first quarter of 2025 are not at all comforting. The report presented by the Italian Publishers’ Association at the Turin Book Fair leaves little room for doubt. Italian miscellaneous publishing (i.e. novels and essays) dropped by 3.6% compared to the same period in 2024.
The figures take into account sales in both physical and online bookshops and translate into a lower expenditure by Italians of EUR 15.9 million. Copies also dropped (3.2%) with almost one million fewer books purchased.
By the end of 2024, the situation had already appeared to be in decline. The Italian publishing industry at that time had closed with a decline of 0.9 per cent, with EUR 14.6 million less than in 2023. In particular, university publishing had suffered, with a drop of 15.1% (EUR 27.5 million less).
The drop in sales affected all types of publishing, but with some differences. Large groups saw a drop of 1.3% compared to the same period in 2024. Medium-sized publishers by 13.1%, and small ones by 7.3%.
Weighing in, according to the AIE, are mainly lost sales due to the end of the App18 introduced by the then Renzi government. The 500 € that new 18 year olds had at their disposal drove much of the sector’s sales for a long time, but now the situation has changed. However the Meloni government, in fact, while passing the Culture Decree, has not renewed the platform as it was conceived. The introduction of two Cards for Culture and Merit, now linked to income and academic performance, have weighed heavily on the decline in sales.
The decline affected all literary genres to some extent, with the exception of children’s and young people’s books, whose sales grew instead (+5.4%). It should be considered, however, that this sector is driven almost exclusively by very early childhood publishing, while the other age groups, on the whole, are also declining.
Other, longer-term considerations see the continued loss of independent bookshops, which have lost as many as 1,000 establishments over the past decade, while ecommerce has declined in favour of physical bookshops. Now the proportion between the two sectors sees the latter reaching 55.6% of the total share. In addition, manga and comics, after growth in previous years, are dropping this time more than other genres, with -5.8% of sales.
