In the July 14, 2008 issue of Publishers Weekly, there was an interesting (annual) feature on “Publishing’s Top Guns.” 

The list of the world’s top publishers is deep and offers an interesting perspective on legal publishers, too.  Three of the top five slots have major legal publishing interests. 

Rank #1: Thomson (7.296 billion in 2007)
Rank #4 Reed Elsevier (6.156 billion in 2007, down from 7.606 billion in 2006) 
Rank #5 Wolters Kluwer (4.982 billion in 2007)

A few other interesting tidbits from the article:

-Reed Elsevier was first place last year, now fourth

-Thomson “would rather be known as a digital publisher than a print publisher — the majority of its revenue is generated by electronic products and services.”

-Cengage Learning, making its first appearance on the list at spot #15, “was formed by the private equity firm Apax Partners and OMERS, a Canadian pension fund, bought by Thomson Learning.”