In just five years, between 2014 and 2018, Italian publishing burned over 670 million euros in revenues (-14,1%) and 1.100 jobs. To give the news is the Authority for the Guarantees in Communications, which in a relationship analyzes the numbers of the main Italian companies active in the daily and periodical publishing market, as well as in that of network operators and broadcasting infrastructures.
In detail, domestic revenues they dropped by 300 million during the five-year period (-7,9%), but in the comparison between 2017 and 2018 there was a growth of 0,6%, which rises to 4,6% if we also consider foreign turnover.
On the side of profitability, EBITDA (Ebitda) averaged 9,3% of revenues during the period 2014-2018, but reached 12,4% in 2018. Net operating margin (EBIT) instead stopped at 2,4% on average over the five years, while in 2018 it rose to 7,2%, with a growth of 3,8 percentage points compared to 2017.
In general, after four financial years always closed with negative values, the consolidated result for the year in 2018 returned to parity.
For employment levels, the effects of the paper publishing crisis have been considerable. Between 2014 and 2018, the companies considered, also following the consolidation operations that characterized the market, reduced their workforce by 7,8%, equal to approximately 1.100 units (the number of employees in 2018 was 12.700 units, against about 13.800 in 2014). On an annual basis, the decline in 2018 was 2,3%, with a loss of around 300 employees.
On the other hand, on the balance sheet front, it improved during the observed period the ratio of equity to liabilities overall, which rises by 3,4%, reaching 37,2% at the end of 2018.
