that this year's increase on publishers number is 1.9%
We do not know the number of publishers for this year. So the 1.9% may be for the Peak.
they can barely keep up with world population growth
Suppose they are up by 1.9%, average. That is still about 67% faster than the population growth.
Publishers are up in the U.S. In June, they were up by 23,000 publishers compared to the same month last year.
And this growth rate is still better than other religions'. Take the Catholic Church for example. Last year they reported a net loss of 305 parishes in the U.S.! They had more parishes 23 years ago than they do now!