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.

Profit Margin

9.4%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

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 FY2020–2026

SBA 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

View SBA lending rankings →

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.

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.

Benchmarking Publishing Industries (except Internet)

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.