On September 21, the National Press and Publication Administration issued a notice outlining the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Publishing Industry Development" (referred to as the "Plan"). The Plan sets a target that by 2030, the publishing sector will achieve significant progress in high-quality development, with its role in stimulating the nation's cultural creativity and driving cultural prosperity becoming more pronounced.
The Plan emphasizes strengthening the publishing industry's function of ideological guidance and cultural foundation-building, solidifying its position as an ideological front, fostering the continuous emergence of outstanding works, and cultivating a more vibrant reading atmosphere. It aims for qualitative improvements and reasonable quantitative growth in the industry, with steady increases in revenue, profits, and assets, as well as breakthroughs in integrated development and a substantial rise in the contribution of emerging publishing formats.
Specifically, the Plan sets a goal that by 2030, the comprehensive reading rate of adult citizens in China will surpass 83%.
Enhancing content supply and quality
In terms of publishing supply, the Plan calls for improving mechanisms for content production services, guidance, and organization, while boosting original creativity and content quality. By 2030, the goal is to release a batch of classic works that promote Chinese culture, disseminate advanced knowledge, and nourish people's minds, ensuring they are worthy of the era and capable of being passed down to future generations.
Additionally, the Plan emphasizes strengthening the production and dissemination of high-quality online publishing content, enhancing supervision over online literature and online games, and guiding their healthy and standardized development. A series of new mass-art精品 will be launched, with selections and recommendations made for online literature and games that demonstrate correct value orientation, rich cultural connotation, and novel and engaging forms, serving as positive role models and guides.
Deepening the national reading initiative
Regarding the advancement of reading among the public, the Plan highlights the important role of nationwide reading activities in building a culturally strong nation. It calls for the implementation of the "Regulations on Promoting Nationwide Reading," organizing events such as National Reading Activity Week and the National Reading Conference, and consolidating the "Bookish China" reading activity brand to further foster a strong atmosphere of loving, reading, and benefiting from good books. By 2030, the comprehensive reading rate of adult citizens will exceed 83%.
The Plan also integrates nationwide reading activities into the evaluation criteria for civilized cities, townships, units, families, and campuses, encouraging diverse reading events at urban and rural grassroots levels.
Accelerating integrated and digital development
Concurrently, the Plan emphasizes speeding up the deep integration of publishing with digital technologies. Aligning with trends of digitalization, networking, and intelligence, it aims to accelerate the fusion of traditional and emerging publishing, guiding publishers to expedite digital-intelligent empowerment and information transformation, thereby strengthening the main position of publishing in the digital-intelligent era.
The Plan specifies that by 2030, a new industrial ecosystem characterized by content value addition, integrated symbiosis, and open innovation will be established. Leveraging key projects for integrated publishing development, it seeks to cultivate new business formats, applications, and carriers, creating a number of influential high-quality multimodal IPs. Leading enterprises will play a driving role in pioneering exploration of content construction, technology application, model innovation, and format expansion, building integrated, digital-intelligent, and high-quality professional databases and comprehensive platforms.
Boosting international communication
Furthermore, the Plan underscores the need to strengthen international communication in publishing. It calls for innovating the carriers and methods for Chinese publishing to "go global," enabling more publishing enterprises and excellent products to reach the world stage and enhancing the dissemination power and influence of Chinese civilization. By 2030, the annual export volume of book copyrights is targeted to reach approximately 14,000 items.
Efforts will be made to expand overseas marketing channels in a targeted manner, support the development of publishing markets in countries along the "Belt and Road," promote the construction of overseas internet marketing platforms, and fully utilize cooperation and exchanges with Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan publishers to facilitate international communication. International exhibition platforms will be used to promote China's quality books, building the "Read China" brand. The Plan also encourages specialized publishing units and key printing and distribution enterprises to expand overseas, establishing publishing IPs and enterprises with international influence and recognition.
The National Press and Publication Administration official, in response to reporters' questions, stated that the Plan guides and drives the prosperous development of the publishing industry over the next five years, emphasizing measures such as strengthening content construction, reinforcing reading guidance, and deepening integrated development. The key highlights of the Plan are: first, bolstering content creation to expand high-quality supply; second, reinforcing reading guidance to nurture reading habits; and third, accelerating integrated restructuring to cultivate development momentum.