Profit Margin
9.4%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Information ·NAICS 511
NAICS 511 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
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 August 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
Use Publishing Industries (except Internet)'s NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Publishing Industries (except Internet) is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.
Source: IRS SOI 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
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.
Publishing Industries (except Internet) sits in the 62nd percentile for employment and the 84th percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)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%/7%
Business Structure Breakdown
Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).
C Corporation SOI 2013
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.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Publishing Industries (except Internet), both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Publishing Industries (except Internet) ranks #29 of 77 U.S. industries at the 3-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #12 of 75 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (9.4% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (1,262,348 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Information · 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 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013
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.