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Best Publishing Stocks to Buy Now (2026)

Top publishing stocks in 2026 ranked by overall Zen Rating. "A" Rated stocks have returned an average of +28.50% per year, and are the best publishing stocks to buy now. Learn More.

According to Zen Ratings, our proprietary rating system that evaluates 115 factors proven to drive growth in stocks and assigns each stock in our system an overall letter grade as well as 7 individual Component Grades for Value, Growth, Momentum, Sentiment, Safety, Financials, and proprietary AI algorithms, the 3 best publishing stocks to buy right now are:

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) is the #1 top publishing stock out of 8 with a Zen Rating of A. Stocks with a rating of A have had an average return of +28.5% per year. Learn more.

The Component Grade breakdown for John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) is: Value: B, Growth: C, Momentum: C, Sentiment: C, Safety: C, Financials: A, and AI: C.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) has a Due Diligence Score of 48, which is 17 points higher than the publishing industry average of 31.

WLY passed 17 out of 38 due diligence checks and has strong fundamentals. John Wiley & Sons has seen its stock return 16.15% over the past year, underperforming other publishing stocks by -15 percentage points.

New York Times Co (NYSE:NYT) is the #2 top publishing stock out of 8 with a Zen Rating of B. Stocks with a rating of B have had an average return of +17.17% per year. Learn more.

The Component Grade breakdown for New York Times Co (NYSE:NYT) is: Value: C, Growth: C, Momentum: C, Sentiment: B, Safety: C, Financials: A, and AI: B.

New York Times Co (NYSE:NYT) has a Due Diligence Score of 52, which is 21 points higher than the publishing industry average of 31.

NYT passed 19 out of 38 due diligence checks and has strong fundamentals. New York Times Co has seen its stock return 29.9% over the past year, underperforming other publishing stocks by -1 percentage points.

New York Times Co has an average 1 year price target of $80.80, an upside of 10.72% from New York Times Co's current stock price of $72.98.

New York Times Co stock has a consensus Buy recommendation according to Wall Street analysts. Of the 5 analysts covering New York Times Co, 40% have issued a Strong Buy rating, 20% have issued a Buy, 40% have issued a hold, while 0% have issued a Sell rating, and 0% have issued a Strong Sell.

Usa Today Co (NYSE:TDAY) is the #3 top publishing stock out of 8 with a Zen Rating of C. Stocks with a rating of C have had an average return of +5.11% per year. Learn more.

The Component Grade breakdown for Usa Today Co (NYSE:TDAY) is: Value: C, Growth: C, Momentum: B, Sentiment: C, Safety: B, Financials: C, and AI: C.

Usa Today Co (NYSE:TDAY) has a Due Diligence Score of 15, which is -16 points lower than the publishing industry average of 31.

TDAY passed 7 out of 38 due diligence checks and has weak fundamentals. Usa Today Co has seen its stock return 121.58% over the past year, overperforming other publishing stocks by 91 percentage points.

Usa Today Co has an average 1 year price target of $9.35, an upside of 11.05% from Usa Today Co's current stock price of $8.42.

Usa Today Co stock has a consensus Buy recommendation according to Wall Street analysts. Of the 3 analysts covering Usa Today Co, 33.33% have issued a Strong Buy rating, 33.33% have issued a Buy, 33.33% have issued a hold, while 0% have issued a Sell rating, and 0% have issued a Strong Sell.

Out of 4 publishing stocks that have issued dividends in the past year, the 3 publishing stocks with the highest dividend yields are:

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) has an annual dividend yield of 2.89%, which is 1 percentage points higher than the publishing industry average of 1.93%. John Wiley & Sons's dividend payout is stable, having never dropped by more than 10% in the last 10 years. John Wiley & Sons's dividend has shown consistent growth over the last 10 years.

John Wiley & Sons's dividend payout ratio of 33.6% indicates that its dividend yield is sustainable for the long-term.

Pearson (NYSE:PSO) has an annual dividend yield of 1.99%, which is the same as the publishing industry average of 1.93%. Pearson's dividend payout is not stable, having dropped more than 10% nine times in the last 10 years. Pearson's dividend has shown consistent growth over the last 10 years.

Pearson's dividend payout ratio of 42.9% indicates that its dividend yield is sustainable for the long-term.

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) has an annual dividend yield of 1.71%, which is the same as the publishing industry average of 1.93%. Scholastic's dividend payout is stable, having never dropped by more than 10% in the last 10 years. Scholastic's dividend has shown consistent growth over the last 10 years.

Scholastic's dividend payout ratio of 31.6% indicates that its dividend yield is sustainable for the long-term.

Publishing stocks were down -1.69% in the last day, and down -2.13% over the last week. Pearson was the among the top losers in the publishing industry, dropping -5.91% yesterday.

Pearson shares are trading lower after JP Morgan downgraded its rating on the stock from Overweight to Neutral.

Based on the Valuation rating, one of the 7 components of a stocks overall Zen Ratings grade, which evaluates factors including estimated earnings yield, earnings before interest and taxes/enterprise value, cash flow yield, free cash flow to price, and price-to-earnings growth (PEG ratio), the 3 most undervalued publishing stocks right now are:

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) is the most undervalued publishing stock based on its Valuation Rating of B. Valuation is one of 7 Component Grades used to calculate the overall Zen Rating.

John Wiley & Sons has a valuation score of 29, which is 11 points higher than the publishing industry average of 18. It passed 2 out of 7 valuation due diligence checks.

John Wiley & Sons's stock has gained 16.15% in the past year. It has underperformed other stocks in the publishing industry by -15 percentage points.

Pearson (NYSE:PSO) is the second most undervalued publishing stock based on its Valuation Rating of C. Valuation is one of 7 Component Grades used to calculate the overall Zen Rating.

Pearson has a valuation score of 29, which is 11 points higher than the publishing industry average of 18. It passed 2 out of 7 valuation due diligence checks.

Pearson's stock has gained 15.71% in the past year. It has underperformed other stocks in the publishing industry by -15 percentage points.

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) is the third most undervalued publishing stock based on its Valuation Rating of C. Valuation is one of 7 Component Grades used to calculate the overall Zen Rating.

Scholastic has a valuation score of 29, which is 11 points higher than the publishing industry average of 18. It passed 2 out of 7 valuation due diligence checks.

Scholastic's stock has gained 115.84% in the past year. It has overperformed other stocks in the publishing industry by 85 percentage points.

75% of publishing stocks rated by analysts are a buy right now. On average, analysts expect publishing stocks to rise by 13.7% over the next year.

16.67% of publishing stocks have a Zen Rating of A (Strong Buy), 16.67% of publishing stocks are rated B (Buy), 66.67% are rated C (Hold), 0% are rated D (Sell), and 0% are rated F (Strong Sell).