Profit Margin
9.4%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Information ·NAICS 511
NAICS 511 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Publishing Industries (except Internet) - Industry Benchmarks
$177,093/yr average annual pay, with 295 SBA loans on record for NAICS 511.
- 9.4%
- Net margin
- 1.3M
- Workers employed
- $177,093/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $179M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 511
Publishing Industries (except Internet) runs a 9.4% pre-tax net margin - in line with the national median - across 32K establishments employing 1.3M workers.
- 9.4%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.3M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $177,093/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $179M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Publishing Industries (except Internet)
Publishing Industries (except Internet) sits inside Information at a 9.4% net margin (in line with the national median), $298.7B in aggregate receipts across 33,011 returns, averaging $9.0B per establishment.
32,332 establishments employ 1,262,348 workers (39.0/location) at $177,093/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and New York.
Total Receipts
$298.7B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$28.2B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
1,262,348
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$177,093/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
32,332
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 109,822; establishment count increased by 223. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Publishing Industries (except Internet) revenue goes
Workforce scale
Publishing Industries (except Internet) margin vs national reference points
Publishing Industries (except Internet) net margin 31.4%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
C Corporation
33,011 returns 100%
Margin: 9.4% · Receipts: $298.7B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 33,011
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $9.0B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $223.6B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 39.0
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers NAICS 5111 | 2.4% |
| Software Publishers NAICS 5112 | 11.2% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 318,535 |
| Texas | 87,446 |
| New York | 82,375 |
| Massachusetts | 72,478 |
| Florida | 46,086 |
| Illinois | 41,037 |
| Georgia | 36,959 |
| Ohio | 34,091 |
| Virginia | 32,330 |
| Utah | 32,220 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
295
Total Loan Volume
$179M
Avg Loan Size
$606K
Jobs Supported
3,183
Program Breakdown
7(a) 279 (95%)
504 16 (5%)
Top SBA Lender
Wells Fargo Bank National Association
23 loans in this industry
New Business Share
20.7% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (6 yrs)
2020 101
2021 107
2022 51
2023 26
2024 6
2025 4
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Publishing Industries (except Internet)?
$298.7B in total annual receipts across all Publishing Industries (except Internet) businesses. Average per business: $9.0B.
How profitable is Publishing Industries (except Internet)?
9.4% net profit margin, in line with the national median.
How many businesses are in Publishing Industries (except Internet)?
32,332 business establishments. Together they employ 1,262,348 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Publishing Industries (except Internet)?
$177,093/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 39.0 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Publishing Industries (except Internet) employment?
California leads with 318,535 workers. Texas (87,446) and New York (82,375) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Publishing Industries (except Internet) receive?
Publishing Industries (except Internet) businesses received 295 SBA loans totaling $179 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $606K. These loans supported 3,183 jobs at origination. Most lending (95%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Publishing Industries (except Internet) reports a higher net margin than 77% of the 79 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 62% of that same 77-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest reported net margins
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Couriers and Messengers 1,185,718
- Repair and Maintenance 1,383,304
- Nonstore Retailers 1,108,365
Benchmarking Publishing Industries (except Internet)
- Net margin: 9.4% vs sector. Browse Information
- 32,332 establishments, 1,262,348 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 295 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 511 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.