Planeta is the leading Spanish-language publishing group in Spain and Latin America. It is also prominent in Portugal and France, where it owns Editis, the country’s second largest publishing company. Planeta is continuing to expand with an emphasis on reading groups, international cooperation projects, and digital, with the creation of e-book distribution platform Libranda and Nubico, a cloud-based reading platform with a flat subscription rate.

Grupo Planeta is present in 25 countries, with more than 100 imprints and a catalogue of 15,000 authors.

Aside from book publishing, the group has shares in the newspaper La Razón; the television company Grupo AtresMedia, which includes two of Spain’s top three channels, Antena 3 and La Sexta; and the country’s second-largest radio station, Onda Cero. Planeta’s Learning and university division reaches more than 100,000 students from MBA to university degrees in Barcelona, Madrid, and online.

The owner family’s Fundación José Manuel Lara is a main sponsor of cultural events.

Analysis & Key Developments

Financial

Grupo Planeta revenues from Publishing, Media, and Learning and universities divisions increased to 3 billion euros in 2015. The growth was due to the consolidation of the publishing division with full integration of Círculo de Lectores, the largest book club in Spain with one million members, into Grupo Planeta in Spain. Other factors were the acquisition of Volumen, the second largest book distributor in France, and the incorporation of the publishing house Sonatine into Editis. The recent increase in consumer spending in Spain also led to growth, and book sales in the country rose higher than the overall consumer market. This development has been seen in France and Latin America as well.

Planeta’s Grupo Atresmedia division is the country’s market leader in television and radio. There is potential for further growth in the division due the improving economy.

The Grupo Planeta Learning and University Division acquired a university in Spain dedicated to the tourism industry. The division also expanded by developing an ambitious professional training plan in partnership with the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, and others.

Return to the full listing of the world's largest publishers.