NAICS Code 513 — Publishing Industries

Subsector in the official 2022 North American Industry Classification System (U.S. Census Bureau). It contains 2 direct sub-codes.

Code	513
Title	Publishing Industries
Level	Subsector (3-digit)
Edition	NAICS 2022 edition

Official definition (2022 NAICS)

Industries in the Publishing Industries subsector group establishments engaged in publishing newspapers, magazines, other periodicals, books, directories, and software. In general, establishments known as publishers issue copies of works for which they usually possess copyright. Works may be in one or more formats including print form, CD-ROM, proprietary electronic networks, or exclusively on the Internet. Publishers may publish works originally created by others for which they have obtained the rights and/or works that they have created in-house. Publishers may publish only and license rights to others to distribute their content, or they may publish and distribute content they create or own. Software publishing is included here because the activity, creation of a copyrighted product and bringing it to market, is equivalent to the creation process for other types of intellectual products.

In NAICS, publishing--the reporting, writing, editing, and other processes that are required to create an edition of a newspaper, for example--is treated as a major economic activity in its own right, rather than as a subsidiary activity to a manufacturing activity, printing. Thus, publishing is classified in the Information sector; whereas, printing is in the Manufacturing sector. The Publishing Industries subsector excludes printed products, such as manifold business forms and appointment books, for which information is not the essential component. Establishments producing these items are included in Subsector 323, Printing and Related Support Activities.

Reproduction of prepackaged software is treated in NAICS as a manufacturing activity, and custom design of software to client specifications is included in the Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector. These distinctions arise because of the different ways that software is created, reproduced, and distributed.

Music publishers and establishments primarily engaged in the production, or production and distribution, of motion pictures and sound recordings are included in Subsector 512, Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries. Establishments not engaged in publishing and exclusively obtaining rights from publishers to broadcast and distribute content are included in Subsector 516, Broadcasting and Content Providers.

Where 513 sits in the hierarchy

Level	Code	Title
Sector	51	Information
Subsector	513	Publishing Industries

Codes under 513

Code	Title
5131	Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers
5132	Software Publishers

Related Subsector codes

• 512 — Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries
• 516 — Broadcasting and Content Providers
• 517 — Telecommunications
• 518 — Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services
• 519 — Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services

Data: official 2022 NAICS structure, descriptions and Census concordances, U.S. Census Bureau — U.S. government works in the public domain (17 U.S.C. §105). Suggested reference, not an official determination.