NAICS 5111 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP

Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers - Industry Benchmarks

$79,130/yr average annual pay, with 135 SBA loans on record for NAICS 5111.

Compiled by PlainBizBench Editorial, Industry Data Editorial Team

2.4%
Net margin: 251K
Workers employed: $79,130/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $79M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated July 2026

The verdict · NAICS 5111

Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers runs a 2.4% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 14K establishments employing 251K workers.

2.4%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI): 251K
Workers employed (Census CBP): $79,130/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $79M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Benchmarking Insights for Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers

Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers sits inside Information at a 2.4% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $16.5B in aggregate receipts across 3,757 returns, averaging $4.4B per establishment.

13,907 establishments employ 251,161 workers (18.1/location) at $79,130/yr average annual pay. New York leads employment, followed by California and Massachusetts.

Profit Margin

2.4%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$16.5B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$400.7M

Pre-tax net income

Employment

251,161

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$79,130/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

13,907

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment decreased by 26,658; establishment count decreased by 764. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

Where each dollar of Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers revenue goes

Receipts decomposition, IRS Statistics of Income 2023 aggregate for Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers

Workforce scale

Establishment size, Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (Census SUSB)

Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers margin vs national reference points

Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers net margin 8.1%

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

3,757 returns 100%

Margin: 2.4% · Receipts: $16.5B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed: 3,757
Avg Receipts per Business: $4.4B
Annual Payroll (Total): $19.9B
Avg Employees per Establishment: 18.1

Sub-Industries

Industry	Profit Margin	Employment	Avg Payroll/Emp
Book Publishers NAICS 51113	N/A	65,282	$93,566/yr
Directory and Mailing List Publishers NAICS 51114	N/A	10,320	$93,223/yr
Newspaper Publishers NAICS 51111	N/A	91,350	$58,512/yr
Other Publishers NAICS 51119	N/A	N/A	N/A
Periodical Publishers NAICS 51112	N/A	64,983	$99,898/yr

Top States by Employment

State	Employment	Establishments	Annual Payroll	Avg Payroll/Emp
New York	35,785	1,092	$3.9B	$109,751/yr
California	18,439	1,454	$1.6B	$87,313/yr
Massachusetts	14,562	329	$1.6B	$107,547/yr
Texas	11,262	912	$822.0M	$72,987/yr
Pennsylvania	10,906	450	N/A	N/A
New Jersey	10,547	325	$1.0B	$96,915/yr
Florida	8,576	874	$637.9M	$74,381/yr
Illinois	8,349	521	$586.7M	$70,272/yr
Missouri	7,804	341	$517.9M	$66,368/yr
Virginia	6,541	343	N/A	N/A

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

135

Total Loan Volume

$79M

Avg Loan Size

$583K

Jobs Supported

1,305

Program Breakdown

7(a) 123 (91%)

504 12 (9%)

Top SBA Lender

Wells Fargo Bank National Association

13 loans in this industry

New Business Share

20.7% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (6 yrs)

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers?

$16.5B in total annual receipts across all Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers businesses. Average per business: $4.4B.

How profitable is Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers?

2.4% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.

How many businesses are in Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers?

13,907 business establishments. Together they employ 251,161 workers.

What is the average payroll per employee in Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers?

$79,130/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 18.1 employees per establishment.

Which states have the most Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers employment?

New York leads with 35,785 workers. California (18,439) and Massachusetts (14,562) round out the top three.

How much SBA lending does Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers receive?

Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers businesses received 135 SBA loans totaling $79 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $583K. These loans supported 1,305 jobs at origination. Most lending (91%) 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: Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers reports a higher net margin than 21% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 58% of that same 259-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.

Other Miscellaneous Manufacturing 249,509
Other Wood Product Manufacturing 255,619
Other Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing 256,679

Benchmarking Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers

Net margin: 2.4% vs sector. Browse Information
13,907 establishments, 251,161 workers. Payroll benchmarks
135 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 5111 · 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 Accessed 2026-07-06

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.