Is It a Small Publishing World After All?: Media Monopolization of the Children's Book Market, 1992-1995

Abstract

This study considers how the trend toward media conglomeratization affected the little-studied industry that provided books to millions of children between 1992 and 1995. Two hypotheses are proposed that test different aspects of competitive market theory. The first predicts that the size of the publisher' s ultimate parent company will influence sales, and the second predicts that children's books that have ties with other media products will sell more copies than books that have no such ties. The second hypothesis is supported and the implications for the concentration of this segment of the publishing industry are discussed. In particular, this question is asked: In an environment of continuing media concentration, where are the measurable effects of that concentration in this market?