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Sector Outlook
The publication of books, magazine, newspapers, Internet ar ticles and
business directories in the UK makes up the second largest publishing
industry in Europe. Although there is some doubt that this high-ranking
position can be maintained, book sales in par ticular have held up well, par tly
because of the huge discounts offered to customers. However, there is less
money around and writers increasingly will have to publicise their own work.
If you’re looking to get into the publishing industry it’s wor th knowing that
the sector is mainly made up of large companies and small to medium
enterprises. The Pearson Group, for example, is a world leader in print
publishing and is responsible for the Financial Times, the Economist,
Pearson Education and Penguin Books.
Other major employers include Faber & Faber, HarperCollins and Kogan Page
for book publishing; Amazon, Blackwell UK, Google Books, Waterstones and
W.H. Smith for book sales; Macmillan, Oxford University Press, Wiley, and
Blackwell for educational publications; Future Publishing, Hearst Magazines,
and IPC Media for magazines; and Johnston Press, News International and
Trinity Mirror for newspaper publications.
With an increasing trend away from printing towards digital there has been
a reduction in the number of printing establishments. Companies such as
Apple, Amazon and Google are wor th considering as par t of your job search
as they capture more and more of the market through e-reading devices
such as Kindle and iPad.
Within the packaging industry the number of people employed is predicted
to remain constant, so although job cuts are unlikely it’s also doubtful that
recruitment will be a priority for many employers. Major companies wor th
contacting include ALPLA, Amcor, Contego Packaging, the Clondalkin Group,
Essel, Linpac Packaging, P I Global, SAICA and Tetra Pak among others.
A good source of job vacancies is
jobs.packagingnews.co.uk.Current
vacancies on this site include flexo press operator, technical field specialist,
press operator, packaging technologist and coding machine operator.
Print, Publishing and Packaging