Name:	jwa_AmortizationOfProductDevelopmentAssets
Namespace Prefix:	jwa_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

Product development assets consist of composition costs and royalty advances to authors. Composition costs, primarily represent the costs incurred to bring an edited commercial manuscript to publication including typesetting, proofreading, design and illustration, etc. Royalty advances to authors are capitalized and, upon publication, are recovered as royalties earned by the authors based on sales of the published works.

No definition available.

Name:	jwa_ProductDevelopmentAssetsGross
Namespace Prefix:	jwa_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

Product Development Assets, Net

No definition available.

Name:	jwa_ProductDevelopmentAssetsNet
Namespace Prefix:	jwa_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

Amount of product development assets, which are partially completed at the time of measurement.

No definition available.

Name:	jwa_ProductDevelopmentAssetsWokInProgress
Namespace Prefix:	jwa_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

Accumulated amortization of other deferred costs capitalized at the end of the reporting period. Does not include deferred finance costs, deferred acquisition costs of insurance companies, or deferred leasing costs for real estate operations.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2009/role/commonPracticeRef
-Topic 210
-SubTopic 10
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-02(17))
-Publisher FASB
-URI https://asc.fasb.org/1943274/2147480566/210-10-S99-1

Name:	us-gaap_AccumulatedAmortizationOfOtherDeferredCosts
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Topic 842
-SubTopic 20
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Section 50
-Paragraph 7A
-Subparagraph (a)
-Publisher FASB
-URI https://asc.fasb.org/1943274/2147478964/842-20-50-7A