How Are Publishing and Printing Distinguished in ISIC Rev. 5?

Publishing and printing are distinguished in ISIC Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, by what each activity produces. Publishing produces content that is issued to readers, viewers or subscribers, and the publisher controls the editorial content. Printing produces physical copies of material supplied by someone else, using presses and related equipment, and that work is manufacturing. A company can do both, but the classification looks at each activity and at the principal activity of the unit as a whole.

One book, two kinds of work, and a handover in between

Follow a single book from manuscript to reader, and the distinction in this guide becomes visible as a handover. A publisher sends a finished manuscript and cover design to a printer. The printer prints five thousand copies and returns them. The publisher then sells and distributes those copies, and a reader holds one physical book. The reader sees one object, but statistics sees two activities: the publisher published, and the printer printed.

That handover is the key. Publishing is commissioning, editing, and issuing a book, journal, or digital title, with editorial control over the content and responsibility for making it available. Printing is producing printed copies, books, newspapers, or packaging on a press, from material supplied by someone else, together with related work such as binding and finishing printed copies. The two activities meet at the manuscript, and then they part: one unit’s output is content issued, the other’s output is copies made.

What if the same company does both jobs?

Many companies do both, and that is where careful reading matters. If the printer also owned the title and issued it, that issuing role would need to be described separately in ISIC Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, because owning a press does not by itself make a unit a publisher, and issuing a title does not by itself make a unit a manufacturer. The classification looks at each activity and at the principal activity of the unit as a whole, so a company with both a publishing arm and a print shop must be understood activity by activity, not by whichever arm is better known or larger in a given year.

A useful test is to ask what would remain if one side stopped. If the company stopped printing but kept commissioning and issuing titles, publishing would continue, perhaps through another printer. If it stopped issuing titles but kept printing other publishers’ manuscripts, printing would continue, perhaps for different clients. The side that defines the unit’s main work is the side the principal activity test will weigh most heavily, and the UNSD entry for each side must be read in full before that weighing is attempted.

Which lookalikes belong neither to publishing nor to printing?

Four lookalikes are worth naming, because each is often folded into one side or the other by mistake. Book retailing sells finished titles to readers, and belongs in trade, not in publishing or printing. Authoring without issuing creates content but does not put it into a publishing service, so it is not publishing on its own. Design services sold separately to a publisher are a service to publishing, not publishing itself, even when the design shapes the finished title. Paper manufacturing supplies the material that presses run on, and belongs earlier in the production chain, not at the printing press.

Lookalike	Where the confusion usually starts
Book retailing	The retailer handles the same physical book the publisher issued
Authoring without issuing	The author wrote the words the publisher will issue
Design services sold separately	The designer shaped the title the publisher will issue
Paper manufacturing	The mill made the paper the printer will run

The table is a reading aid only. The UNSD publication wording remains the authority for any code, and each lookalike should be checked against its own entry.

How to trace a mixed case in practice

Start from the UNSD detail page, work through the section and its finer levels for publishing, then do the same for manufacturing, and keep a note of the wording you relied on for each side, so a later reviewer can retrace the same path. Pay particular attention to whether the activity described matches the entry in full, including any exclusions noted there, and to which side is the unit’s main work when both sides are present.

Nothing here settles an individual case. This guide is statistical classification only, it does not determine any reader’s code, principal activity, or registration, and a real case should be confirmed with the national statistical institute or business register that holds the record.