The majority of the companies in this industry are UK owned, but there are some notable exceptions. Together, they own a significant share of the UK national press. In the business magazine sector, VNU is owned by a Dutch group.
Some book publishers are also foreign owned.
Reed Elsevier, which publishes books and journals, is an Anglo-Dutch company. Since 1995, the volume of published books and magazines has increased but newspaper circulations have fallen. By the end of 1999, there were 8,887 magazines, including academic periodicals and professional journals. A big development in the last 2 years has been the increasing importance of customer magazines. These magazines are often given away free with membership of an association, although in some cases they are paid-for titles.