We work alongside publishers and industry partners to improve diversity and inclusion in the industry.
Collectively, the publishing industry recognises that it needs to do more to address this issue and there are a growing number of targeted initiatives.
We hope that through industry-led action we can create a workforce that represents the rich diversity of the UK’s population, opening up opportunities for aspiring publishers and ensuring the long-term health of our industry.
We work closely with members and a number of partners such as the Creative Industries Council on this agenda.
The Publishers Association Inclusivity Action Plan, developed with Creative Access, comprises a set of 10 commitments for publishing businesses to undertake over the period 2023-2026.
As well as committing to the plan, we also ask publishers to aim for their UK workforce to reflect national demographics at all levels, across the following characteristics:
These targets will be measured at an industry level and reported bi-annually between 2023 and 2026.
The full Inclusivity Action Plan can be read here.
We encourage publishers and other industry stakeholders to support the initiative by signing here.
Since 2017, we have undertaken an industry-wide survey of the workforce demographics of UK publishing companies to obtain a true reflection of diversity within the industry. Participation in this survey has grown significantly in the time we have been conducting it and the results help to direct and target our activity.
The results of the initial survey were released in 2017, which can be found here.
A more expansive report for 2018 came out at the start of 2019, which you can read here.
The most comprehensive overview of the UK publishing workforce ever recorded was released at the beginning of 2020, which can be read here.
The results of the 2021 survey can be found here.
The results of the most recent 2022 survey can be found here. This will be the final iteration of our UK Publishing Workforce report in its current form. On 31st January 2023, the Publishers Association launched the ‘Inclusivity Action Plan’ that comprises of a set of 10 commitments for publishing businesses to undertake over the period 2023 – 2026. This will include a new way of collecting data, in the form of a survey every two years, that will ultimately provide a clearer, more comprehensive view of our industry.