Springer Nature AG & Co KgaA: Three Reasons to Stay Overweight

Research evidence excerpt

Springer Nature AG & Co KgaA: Three Reasons to Stay Overweight

IdeaMBarriers to entry remain high. The market is also protected by meaningful structural

barriers, with large listed publishers accounting for ~65% of the overall industry. In our

view, that concentration reflects real advantages that are difficult to replicate, including

access to editors and journal brands that have been built over decades. Those assets

cannot be recreated quickly and, in our view, are not something AI can easily displace.

Exhibit 20: Research content market valued at c.$18bn in 2025 with the top 5 journal

publishers accounting for 65% of article volume...

Source: Company information, Outsell Scholarly Research 2026 Ecosystem View - April 2026, InCites - Web of Science and Company estimate,

Morgan Stanley research. Notes (1) Total scholarly research market includes workflow software & platforms, events, data and analytics services

2) Wiley and MDPI peer market share as per MS estimates

Exhibit 21: With the top 4 publishers accounting for c.48% of article volume in 2013

increasing to 61% in 2025, with market share accelerating over the last two years

Top 4 Publishers market share of article volumes 61%

54%

48%

2013 2023 2025

Source: Company information, Morgan Stanley Research

Why is SN well positioned to benefit from OA? SN was the first large publisher to move

into the OA market. SN is positioned as the number one OA publisher in terms of total OA

revenue and the number two in FOA in terms of revenue and FOA article volume (behind

pure-play FOA publisher MDPI). It also owns the largest OA journal, Scientific Reports,

and the most cited OA journal, Nature Communications and their strong market position