The publishing sector represents one of the biggest strands of the cultural sector in Europe. The book sector is certainly its most representative part and covers all activities related to edition and publishing in all fields (leisure, education, professional, news, academic, etc.). It also covers both ways of publishing, material (on paper or other material) and digital. Besides its important cultural value and role, the book sector is also an essential economic activity in the EU. In 2021, it was assessed as the second cultural activity, right after watching or listening a program, and represented 12% of the EU average cultural expense. Still in 2021, it had a turnover of more than EUR 23 billion, 18% of it being generated by exportation (a rate relatively stable over the years). If over the years, the publishing sector demonstrated a rather stable good health, some figures show nevertheless significant evolutions that impact the sector on a long term basis. Digitalisation is one of them, probably the most obvious, but all challenges cannot be reduced to it, even if they are all intertwined - which makes them more difficult to apprehend exhaustively.
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- Belgium
