Korean publishers saw their earnings deteriorate last year as the short-lived boost from novelist Han Kang's 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature faded amid a continued decline in the reading population.
According to the "2025 Publishing Market Statistics" released Thursday by the Korean Publishers Association, total revenue at 72 publishing companies reached 4.85 trillion won ($3.5 billion) last year, down 1.3% from the previous year. Combined operating profit totaled 137 billion won, down 13.4% year-on-year. The statistics cover publishing companies that filed their 2025 audit reports with the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system.
By segment, educational book and trade book publishers suffered the sharpest declines in profitability. The 42 educational book publishers posted combined revenue of 4.11 trillion won last year, down 1.2% year-on-year, while operating profit plunged 29.5% to 67.3 billion won. The textbook and study guide segments remained profitable, but the workbook, book set and teaching materials, and foreign language and other segments all posted losses. The contraction in the educational book market is attributed to the shrinking school-age population due to low birth rates.
The 22 trade book publishers recorded combined revenue of 431 billion won last year, down 6.9% from the previous year, with operating profit falling 11.9% to 41.6 billion won. As the boost from Han Kang's 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature wore off, 15 of the 22 companies posted revenue declines.
In contrast, the nine comics, webtoon and web novel publishers improved their performance. Their combined revenue rose 7.4% year-on-year to 315.9 billion won, while operating profit jumped 82.1% to 28.1 billion won. The continued growth is attributed to the acquisition of major intellectual property (IP) and expansion into global markets.
Major bookstores also posted broadly weaker results. Combined revenue at four online and offline bookstores — Kyobo Book Centre, Aladin Communications, Youngpoong Bookstore and Yes24 — totaled 2.17 trillion won, down 3.1% year-on-year. Their combined operating profit fell 4.0% to 18.5 billion won. The revenue decline at bookstores is seen as reflecting the fading Han Kang effect and the slump in the educational book market. Aladin Communications and Yes24 saw their operating profits fall 43.1% and 69.7% year-on-year, respectively. Kyobo Book Centre, however, swung to an operating profit of 6 billion won in 2025 after posting a loss in 2024. Kyobo aggressively expanded its wholesale business, with business-to-business (B2B) revenue up 63.1% from a year earlier. Coupang, whose book segment revenue is reported to have surged recently, did not disclose detailed data.
