NYSE: WLY
JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.CIK 0000107140 · Books
The Company, founded in 1807, was incorporated in the state of New York on January 15, 1904. Throughout this report, when we refer to “Wiley,” the “Company,” “we,” “our,” or “us,” we are referring to John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and all of our subsidiaries, except where the context indicates otherwise. About this business →
Each report below shows a 3-bullet preview. Free accounts read 3 full reports a month — narrative summary, section diffs, and EDGAR-cited quotes.
Sign up freeWant to see a complete report first? Today's free report (SUNB 10-K) is open in full — no account needed.
Summary not yet generated.
Summary not yet generated.
Partner
Trade WLY commission-free
Open an account, get a free stock.
Investing involves risk. Free stock terms apply.
Summary not yet generated.
Summary not yet generated.
Summary not yet generated.
Summary not yet generated.
Summary not yet generated.
Summary not yet generated.
About JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.
Source: Item 1 (Business) from the 10-K filed June 24, 2026. Description as filed by the company with the SEC.
Item 1. Business
The Company, founded in 1807, was incorporated in the state of New York on January 15, 1904. Throughout this report, when we refer to “Wiley,” the “Company,” “we,” “our,” or “us,” we are referring to John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and all of our subsidiaries, except where the context indicates otherwise.
Please refer to Part II, Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data,” for financial information about the Company and its subsidiaries, which is incorporated herein by reference. Also, when we cross reference to a “Note,” we are referring to our “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” in Part II, Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” unless the context indicates otherwise.
Wiley is a global leader in authoritative content and research intelligence for the advancement of scientific discovery, innovation, and learning. The Company’s content, services, platforms, and knowledge networks are tailored to meet the evolving needs of its customers and partners, including institutions, societies, corporations, researchers, students, instructors, and other professionals. Wiley is a predominantly digital company with 85% of revenue for the year ended April 30, 2026 generated by digital products and services. For the year ended April 30, 2026, 48% of revenue is recurring which includes revenue that is contractually obligated or set to recur with a high degree of certainty.
We report financial information for the following reportable segments, as well as a Corporate category, which includes certain costs that are not allocated to the reportable segments:
Read full description ↓
•Research includes the reporting lines of Research Publishing and Research Solutions
•Learning includes the Academic and Professional reporting lines and consists of publishing, courseware, and assessments.
Wiley also reported a Held for Sale or Sold segment in the years ended April 30, 2025 and 2024, which primarily included non-core businesses which were classified as held-for-sale until the date of sale, as well as other businesses which were sold.
Our operations are primarily located in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), with smaller offices in Germany, India, and Jordan. In the year ended April 30, 2026, approximately 49% of our consolidated revenue was from outside the US.
Wiley’s business strategies are tightly aligned with consistent long-term growth trends, including (1) ever-increasing global research and development (R&D) investment and researcher productivity gains from artificial intelligence (AI), leading to growth in scientific research output and the number of institutions and researchers worldwide, and (2) the ever-increasing need for authoritative content to fuel AI models and applications. These strategies include expanding our publishing program and journal portfolio to meet the global demand for peer-reviewed research, driving additional value in our subscription-based models for universities and corporations, volume-based models for open access, content licensing opportunities for applications in AI and data analytics, and content platform and service offerings for corporations and societies. AI and data analytics is our emerging growth engine, leveraging our proprietary content, data, and partnership ecosystem for corporate models and applications. Learning strategies include selectively scaling high-value digital content, courseware, and assessments to meet targeted opportunities in education and professional development.
5
Index
Business Segments
Research:
Research’s mission is to support researchers, professionals, and learners in the discovery and use of research knowledge to help them achieve their goals. Research provides over 1,900 scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, as well as related content and services in areas of physical sciences and engineering, health sciences, social sciences and humanities, and life sciences. Research customers include academic, corporate, government, and public libraries, funders of research, researchers, scientists, clinicians, engineers and technologists, scholarly and professional societies, and students and professors. Research products are sold and distributed globally through multiple channels, including direct to research libraries and library consortia via multi-year agreements, through independent subscription agents, and direct to researchers and professional society members, and other customers. For fiscal year 2026, approximately 96% of Research revenue is generated by digital and online products, and services. Publishing centers include Australia, China, Germany, India, the UK, and the US. Research revenue accounted for approximately 67% of our consolidated revenue in the year ended April 30, 2026, with a 33.2% Adjusted EBITDA margin. See Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in the section “Segment Operating Results” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further details and for the reconciliation of Adjusted Operating Income to Adjusted EBITDA.
Research revenue by product type includes Research Publishing and Research Solutions. The graphs below present revenue by product type for the years ended April 30, 2026 and 2025:
2026
2025
Key growth strategies for the Research segment include publishing more peer-reviewed research and expanding our journal portfolio to meet global demand, thereby increasing the value of our Journal Subscriptions (pay to read), Transformational Agreements (pay to read and publish), developing open access journals and driving volume-based revenue streams (pay to publish), focusing on high-growth and emerging research markets, licensing our content for innovation in the corporate R&D value chain, and developing new digital products and information services to meet the needs of researchers, authors, societies, and corporate customers.
Research Publishing
Research Publishing generates the majority of its revenue from contracts with its customers in the following revenue streams:
•Journal Subscriptions (pay to read) and Transformational Agreements (pay to read and publish) under multi-year arrangements
•Open Access (pay to publish)
•Licensing and ancillary products
6
Index
Journal Subscriptions and Transformational Agreements
As of April 30, 2026, we published over 1,900 academic research journals. We sell Journal Subscriptions directly to thousands of research institutions worldwide through our sales representatives, indirectly through independent subscription agents, through marketing campaigns, and through memberships in professional societies for those journals that are sponsored by societies. Journal Subscriptions are primarily licensed through contracts for digital content available online through our Wiley Online Library platform. Contracts are negotiated by us directly with customers or their subscription agents. Subscription periods typically cover calendar years. Payment for subscription revenue is generally collected in advance.
Transformational Agreements (read and publish) are a subscription-based model that blends Journal Subscriptions and Open Access offerings. For a single fee, a national or regional consortium of libraries pays in advance and receives full read access to our journal portfolio and the ability to publish under an open access arrangement (articles made freely available and authors maintain copyright). Like Journal Subscriptions, Transformational Agreements involve recurring revenue under multi-year arrangements.
Long-term publishing alliances play a major role in Research Publishing’s success. Approximately 46% of Journal Subscriptions revenue is derived from publication rights that are owned by professional societies and other publishing partners such as research institutions or foundations, and are published by us pursuant to long-term contracts or owned jointly with such entities. These alliances, with many of them being decades-long in duration, bring mutual benefit: The partners gain Wiley’s publishing, marketing, sales, and distribution expertise, while Wiley benefits from being affiliated with prestigious organizations and their members. Societies that sponsor or own such journals generally receive a royalty and/or other financial consideration. We may procure editorial services from such societies on a prenegotiated fee basis. We also enter into agreements with outside independent editors of journals that define their editorial duties and the fees and expenses for their services. Contributors of articles to our journal portfolio transfer publication rights to us or a professional society, as applicable. We publish the journals of many prestigious societies, including the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Anthropological Association, the American Geophysical Union, and the German Chemical Society.
Wiley Online Library, our digital content platform for researchers, provides the user with intuitive navigation, enhanced discoverability, expanded functionality, and a range of personalization options. Access to abstracts is free and full content is accessible through licensing agreements or as individual article purchases. Our online publishing platforms provide revenue growth opportunities through new applications and business models, online advertising, deeper market penetration, and individual sales and pay-per-view options. Also note that portions of our content are provided free or at nominal cost to developing nations through partnerships with certain nonprofit organizations.
The annual Clarivate Analytics’ Journal Citation Reports (JCR) are one of the most widely used sources of citation metrics used to analyze the performance of peer-reviewed journals. The most prominent of these metrics, the Impact Factor, is based on the frequency with which an average article is cited in the JCR report year. Alongside other metrics, this makes it an important tool for evaluating a journal’s impact on ongoing research.
Wiley’s performance in the 2025 release of the JCR remains strong, maintaining its top 3 position in terms of citations received. Wiley has 8% of titles, 8% of articles, and 10% of citations.
A total of 1,740 Wiley journals were included in the reports. Wiley journals ranked #1 in 17 categories across 17 of its titles and achieved 269 top-10 category rankings.
Open Access
Under the Open Access business model, accepted research articles once published are immediately free to access online. Open Access offers authors choices in how to share and disseminate their work, and it serves the needs of researchers who may be required by their research funder to make articles freely accessible without embargo. APCs are typically paid by the individual author or by the author’s funder, and payments are often mediated by the author’s institution. We provide specific workflows and infrastructure to authors, funders, and institutions to support the requirements of Open Access.
7
Index
We offer two Open Access publishing models. The first of these is Hybrid Open Access where authors can publish in the majority of our paid subscription journals. The second offering is Gold Open Access, where authors can publish in open access-only journals. All Open Access articles are subject to the same rigorous peer-review process applied to our subscription-based journals. As with our subscription portfolio, a number of the Gold Open Access Journals are published under contract for, or in partnership with, prestigious societies, including the American Geophysical Union, the American Heart Association, and the British Ecological Society. The Open Access portfolio spans life, physical, medical, and social sciences and includes a choice of high impact journals and broad-scope titles that offer a responsive, author-centered service.
Licensing and ancillary products
Licensing and ancillary products includes the licensing of publishing rights, the licensing of content for AI including training large language models (LLM) to improve accuracy and impact, commercial models such as point of medical care applications, and corporate inference models to drive R&D productivity and impact. Wiley engages with international publishers and receives licensing revenue from reproductions, translations, and other digital uses of our content. Through the Article Select and PayPerView programs, we provide fee-based access to non-subscribed journal articles, content, book chapters, and major reference work articles. The Research Publishing business is also a provider of content and services in evidence-based medicine (EBM). Through our alliance with The Cochrane Collaboration, we publish The Cochrane Library, a premier source of high-quality independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. Backfile licenses provide access to a historical collection of Wiley journals, generally for a one-time fee.
Research Solutions
Research Solutions generates revenue through content platforms and services that enable corporations and societies to attract and retain customers.
Research Solutions includes advertising (journals and newsletters), sales, and marketing services (knowledge hubs for pharmaceutical companies). Our recruitment platform offers full-service career site management for pharmaceutical companies and other R&D centric corporations. Spectral database licenses grant access to scientific research-based data on microscopy, spectroscopy, bioanalysis, and separation science. Our projects business offers services related to content creation and distribution, an educational platform for health professionals, and digital events and webinars for corporations in health and physical sciences.
We also provide platform and workflow solutions for societies and publishers, including production and content hosting, submissions and peer review support, and editorial and copy editing services. Atypon® is a publishing platform that hosts content on behalf of approximately 2,000 publishers and societies. In fiscal year 2026, we began providing licensing as a service to other publishers to generate AI-related revenue. Wiley provides the expertise and relationships and combines its content with partner content for LLM or corporate use, paying us a royalty.
Research Exchange (ReX) is Wiley's proprietary end-to-end manuscript submission and peer review platform, designed to streamline the publishing workflow for authors, editors, and reviewers. The platform leverages AI to automate metadata extraction at submission, identify potential integrity issues prior to peer review, and optimize reviewer matching across Wiley's journal portfolio.
Learning:
Our Learning segment includes Academic and Professional, whose products and services include scientific, professional, and education print and digital books, digital courseware to support students and instructors, and assessment services for businesses and professionals. Primary categories served include business and leadership, technology, behavioral health, engineering/architecture, science, and professional education. Products are sold to and through brick-and-mortar and online retailers, wholesalers who supply such bookstores, college bookstores, individual practitioners, corporations, distributor networks, and government agencies.
8
Index
Publishing centers include Australia, Germany, India, the UK, and the US. Learning accounted for approximately 33% of our consolidated revenue in the year ended April 30, 2026, with a 38.0% Adjusted EBITDA margin. See Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in the section “Segment Operating Results” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further details and for the reconciliation of Adjusted Operating Income to Adjusted EBITDA. For fiscal year 2026, approximately 62% of Learning revenue is from digital and online products and services.
Learning revenue by product type includes Academic and Professional. The graphs below present revenue by product type for the years ended April 30, 2026 and 2025:
2026
2025
Key strategies for the Learning business include selectively scaling high-value digital content, courseware, and assessments where the Company is seeking content libraries for new licensing opportunities.
Book manuscripts and materials are sourced from authors around the world, utilizing the efforts of an internal editorial staff, external editorial support, and advisory boards. Most materials originate by the authors themselves or as the result of suggestions or solicitations by editors. We enter into agreements that state the terms and conditions under which the materials will be published, the author name in which the copyright will be registered, the basis for any royalties, and other matters. Author compensation models include royalties, which vary depending on the nature of the product and work-for-hire. We may make advance royalty payments against future royalties to authors of certain publications. Royalty advances are reviewed for recoverability and a reserve for loss is maintained, if appropriate.
We continue to add new titles, revise existing titles, and discontinue the sale of others in the normal course of our business. We also create adaptations of original content for specific markets based on customer demand. Our general practice is to revise our textbooks every 3 to 5 years, as warranted, and to revise other titles as appropriate. Subscription-based products are updated on a more frequent basis.
Wiley does not own any printing facilities. We generally contract independent printers and binderies globally for their services, using a variety of suppliers and materials to support our range of needs. As of April 30, 2026, we had one global warehousing and distribution facility remaining, which is in the UK. We have an agreement to outsource our US-based book distribution operations to Cengage Learning, with the continued aim of improving efficiency in our distribution activities and moving to a more variable cost model.
Book sales for Learning are generally made on a returnable basis with certain restrictions. We provide for estimated future returns on sales made during the year based on historical return experience and current market trends.
Academic
Academic generates the majority of its revenue from contracts with its customers in the following revenue streams:
•Print and Digital Publishing
•Digital Courseware
•Licensing and ancillary products
9
Index
Print and Digital Publishing
Education textbooks, related supplementary material, and digital products are sold primarily to bookstores and online retailers serving educational institutions (primarily colleges and universities) and direct-to-students. We employ sales representatives who call on faculty responsible for adopting books to be used in courses, and on the bookstores that serve such institutions and their students. The textbook business is seasonal, with the majority of textbook sales occurring during the July-through-October and December-through-February periods. There are various channels to drive accessibility for print and digital materials within the higher education market, including used, rental, and inclusive access whereby the cost of digital course content is added to a student's tuition and fees. Scientific, technical, and medical (STM) reference books are sold and distributed globally in digital and print formats through multiple channels, including research libraries and library consortia, independent subscription agents, direct sales to professional society members, bookstores, online booksellers, and other customers.
Book content is available online through Wiley Online Library, WileyPLUSTM, zyBooks®, alta®™, and other proprietary platforms. Digital books are delivered to intermediaries and aggregators, including Amazon, Apple, and Google, for sale to individuals, libraries, or distinct communities in various industry-standard or custom formats. Education and STM publishing alliance partners include IEEE, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and many others. The ability to join Wiley’s product development, sales, marketing, distribution, and technology with a partner’s content, technology, and/or brand name has contributed to our success.
Digital Courseware
We offer online learning solutions, including WileyPLUS, an online education platform that is integrated with a digital textbook. The interactive zyBooks platform for STEM disciplines, namely computer science, maximizes learner engagement and retention through demonstration and hands-on learning experiences using question sets, animations, tools, and embedded labs.
Licensing and ancillary products
We engage in co-publishing titles with international publishers and receive licensing revenue from photocopies, reproductions, translations, and digital uses of our content. We also license our Learning content for AI, including training LLM to improve accuracy and impact.
Professional
Professional generates the majority of its revenue from contracts with its customers in the following revenue streams:
•Professional Publishing
•Assessments
•Licensing and ancillary products
Professional Publishing
Professional books, which include business and finance, technology, and other professional categories are sold to brick-and-mortar and online retailers, wholesalers who supply such bookstores, college bookstores, individual practitioners, corporations, and government agencies. We employ sales representatives who call upon independent bookstores, national and regional chain bookstores, wholesalers, and corporations globally. Sales of professional books also result from direct marketing outreach, conferences, and other industry-relevant outreach. Key franchises and brands in the Professional category include Dummies®, Sybex, The Jon Gordon Companies, and Disciplined Entrepreneurship by Bill Aulet. Professional organizations also use our custom professional publications for marketing outreach. This outreach includes customized books written for a specific customer and includes custom cover art, such as imprints, messages, and slogans.
10
Index
Assessments
Our assessments offerings include soft-skills training solutions delivered to organizational clients and their employees through online digital delivery platforms, either directly or through an authorized distributor network of independent consultants, trainers, and coaches. Wiley’s branded assessment solutions include Everything DiSC®, The Five Behaviors® based on Patrick Lencioni’s perennial bestseller The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and Leadership Practices Inventory® from Kouzes and Posner’s bestselling The Leadership Challenge, as well as PXT Select®™, a pre-hire selection tool. Our solutions help organizations hire and develop effective managers, leaders, and teams.
Licensing and ancillary products
Licensing and distribution services are made available to other publishers under agency arrangements. Wiley also realizes advertising revenue from branded websites (e.g., Dummies.com) and online applications. We also license our content for AI, including training LLM to improve accuracy and impact.
Human Capital
As of April 30, 2026, we employed approximately 4,500 colleagues worldwide.
We view our colleagues as one of our most significant assets and investments to deliver on our mission and to champion and advocate for our customers who want to make impacts in their fields, their workplaces, and their lives, through the advancement of scientific discovery, innovation, and learning. Our success depends on our ability to develop, attract, reward, and retain a diverse population of talented, qualified, and highly skilled colleagues at all levels of our organization and across our global workforce. This includes programs, policies, and initiatives that promote inclusion and belonging; talent acquisition; ongoing employee learning and development; competitive compensation and benefits; health and well-being; and emphasis on employee satisfaction and engagement.
Our culture differentiates us as an organization, and our core values define how we work together. We ask colleagues to embody our three behaviors—Obsess Over Impact, Challenge, Then Commit, and Drive What's Next—and assess their performance against these in addition to what they achieve against their goals. These values define who we are as a company and what we stand for.
Health & Well-Being
We support colleague well-being through a suite of global programs, including paid parental leave, mental health resources, and a global giving platform, spanning physical, emotional, social, career, and financial well-being.
Our Global Work Model provides colleagues with digitally enabled remote work balanced with purposeful in-person connection and collaboration.
Careers and Engagement
Executing Wiley's transformation into an AI-forward research intelligence company requires a workforce with the capabilities, leadership, and culture to deliver. We invest in development across the career lifecycle through curated learning resources, targeted career conversations, leadership development programs, and expanded access to coaching, including an AI-enabled coaching tool. Combined with our annual succession planning process, colleagues in our pipeline experience career progression at more than double the rate of the broader colleague population.
We measure colleague engagement twice annually and continue to expand access to AI tools to support colleague productivity and drive meaningful time savings across the organization. We remain committed to pay transparency, providing salary range visibility and publishing our global equitable pay study annually.
11
Index
Environment
At Wiley, environmental sustainability is an integral part of our operations and corporate strategy. We continue to build on our progress to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions, strengthen partnerships that advance environmental action, and promote responsible stewardship throughout our value chain. We are committed to aligning our practices and reporting to relevant environmental regulations and evolving standards to ensure our actions support broader climate and sustainability goals.
Our climate strategy prioritizes achieving net-zero emissions by 2040. We have established science-based targets, validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), to drive emissions reductions across Scopes 1 (direct emissions), 2 (indirect emissions from purchased utilities), and 3 (other indirect emissions within our value chain). We continue to transition our owned and leased offices and distribution centers toward renewable energy sources, while utilizing Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs) for locations not yet able to access renewable energy directly. Additionally, we are consolidating our office footprint and prioritizing responsible energy management across our operations. These commitments reflect our conviction that ambitious, science-aligned action is both a business imperative and a responsibility to the broader global transition to net zero.
In parallel, we are advancing sustainable publishing and digital innovation to minimize environmental impact. We are promoting digital adoption, optimizing resource use, and enhancing supply chain engagement to uphold responsible standards. We continue to publish content that supports the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals and reduce print production through initiatives such as print-on-demand, zero-inventory distribution models, and increased digital offerings. Our efforts are guided by our publicly available Environmental Policy and Paper Selection and Use Policy. Wiley is also a signatory to the UN Global Compact, reflecting our broader commitment to responsible business practices across environmental, social, and governance dimensions.
Wiley remains committed to building on the progress we have made, evolving our strategy to meet the challenges ahead, and making a positive impact on environmental sustainability.
Financial Information About Business Segments
The information set forth in Part II, Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” in Note 3, “Revenue Recognition, Contracts with Customers,” and Note 20, “Segment Information,” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements and Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K are incorporated herein by reference.
Available Information
Our investor site is investors.wiley.com. Our internet address is wiley.com. We make available, free of charge, on or through our investors.wiley.com website, our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports that we file or furnish pursuant to Sections 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, or the Exchange Act, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file these materials with, or furnish them to, the SEC. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through our website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
12
Index