Australian Publishing Workforce Is More Diverse, Survey Finds

What did the survey find? The Australian publishing workforce is more culturally diverse than it was in 2022, and it is still, in the association's own words, highly educated, geographically concentrated, and mostly women. On October 20, 2026, the Australian Publishers Association published the results of its second Australian Publishing Industry Workforce Survey on Diversity and Inclusion, conducted with the University of Melbourne. The writeup is the association's comparison with the first survey, taken in 2022. More of the association's news is on our Australian Publishers Association page, including our report on its copyright concerns before a parliamentary AI committee.

The survey collected 774 responses from March to May 2026. First Nations representation rose from 1% in 2022 to 3.3% this year. People with an Asian cultural identity rose from 8.5% to 12.5%. People with a European cultural identity other than British rose from 10.5% to 31.7%.

On sexuality, 24.2% of respondents identify as LGBTQIA+, up from 21% in 2022. Among people who identify as LGBTQIA+, 88.6% are open or partially open about their sexuality at work, up from 79.7%.

Education, place, gender, and health

The association says publishing "remains highly educated and comparatively privileged." It reports that 85.8% of respondents have a university degree and 45.5% attended private schools. The workforce is concentrated in two cities: 76.1% are in Sydney or Melbourne.

Women make up 83.3% of the industry. The proportion of men is greater in senior roles. The release does not give a separate percentage for those senior roles.

Nearly one third of people in publishing are living with a long-term health condition or disability, including a physical or mental health condition. At the time they filled in the survey, 36.9% of respondents were experiencing mental health conditions.

What the association said

APA chief executive Patrizia Di Biase-Dyson is quoted directly: "We're buoyed by the improvements from the 2022 survey, but recognise the industry still has a way to go. Real change takes time, but this survey shows our industry is willing to do the work. It's a vital part of the process to keep us accountable and help identify where support is needed most. That's how we build a publishing sector that truly represents everyone."

The co-chairs of the association's Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, Rachel Bin Salleh and Rosina Di Marzo, tie the staffing numbers to the books. "It's important to be mindful of our goal – to publish more books from authors of diverse backgrounds so that everyone can see themselves reflected in our stories. For this to happen we need to employ and genuinely support people from diverse backgrounds who can help us publish and promote books with sensitivity."

Bin Salleh is publisher at Magabala. Di Marzo is communications and marketing manager at NewSouth. The association says that after the 2022 survey it set up the working group and an industry action plan. The recommendations it describes are aimed first at cultural diversity. It also says more work is needed to understand other parts of diversity, including staff with a long-term health condition or with fluctuating capacity because of disability, and people who are carers, using the definition in the Carer Recognition Act 2010.

The action plan, as the page describes it

The page sets out steps publishers can take. The first is hiring. It points members to the Open Book internship and asks them to look again at people who were shortlisted before. The contact it names is Open Book program manager Rebecca Slater. It also suggests in-house paid internships, and gives Hachette's summer internship as one model, or a partnership with another organisation. Media Diversity Australia, the Story Factory, and the Afro-Australian Student Organisation are named as groups that have already worked with Australian publishers on internships. Our Hachette page is where that publisher's other news sits.

Hiring, the page says, should include senior jobs, not only entry-level ones. It says Hachette uses Media Diversity Australia's TalentHub database, and that Hardie Grant and UQP have established First Nations-identified senior editorial roles.

The second step is training. The working group asks that all staff, including management, keep up diversity and inclusion training, and that people who hire and manage get training aimed at inclusive practice. The association points to its own list of recommended programs.

The third is flexibility. Because the industry has a high share of people with a long-term health condition or disability, and of people with unpaid caring responsibilities, the page asks publishers to offer jobs with flexible arrangements, including part-time hours, adjusted hours, and remote work.

The fourth is a person or a committee inside the workplace, resourced to do the work. Staff can connect to the association's group. The contact for joining, or for an open meeting, is APA industry development manager Andrea Hanke.

Why it matters for authors and publishers

These are workforce figures, not a count of books. The movement the association reports is who is employed: First Nations representation from 1% to 3.3%, Asian cultural identity from 8.5% to 12.5%, European identity other than British from 10.5% to 31.7%, and LGBTQIA+ identification from 21% to 24.2%, with 88.6% of that group open or partly open at work. Around those gains, the same release still describes a highly educated workforce (85.8% with a university degree, 45.5% from private schools), concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne (76.1%), 83.3% women with a higher share of men in senior roles, and nearly a third living with a long-term health condition or disability, including 36.9% reporting a mental health condition when they answered.

Di Biase-Dyson treats the survey as a way to stay accountable, not as a finished result. The co-chairs state a goal the survey does not measure: more books by authors of diverse backgrounds, which they say depends on employing and supporting the people who publish those books. The action plan is the association's list for doing that. It names internships, senior hiring, training, flexible work, and a diversity lead inside the house. It does not report how many such books the houses published.

Sources

• Australian Publishers Association, October 20, 2026: Second workforce survey finds encouraging gains in diversity