A high-caliber publishing talent pool serves as a strategic and foundational support for driving the digital transformation of the publishing industry and for building a strong publishing and cultural nation. Policy empowerment is among the driving mechanisms for the development of China's publishing talent contingent. At the outset of the 15th Five-Year Plan, an objective evaluation of the empowerment effectiveness of China's existing policies for the development of its publishing talent contingent, along with revealing the strengths and limitations of their empowerment, can provide an evidence-based foundation for future policy adjustment and formulation. This study takes 74 national-level policies on the development of China's publishing talent contingent issued since 2010 as the research sample. Based on text mining techniques, a policy modeling consistency (PMC) index model for China's policies on the development of China's publishing talent contingent was developed. Subsequently, the PMC index for each policy was calculated, and the corresponding PMC surface plots were generated. Through multi-dimensional quantitative analysis and evaluation, the following findings are presented: China's policies exhibit a certain degree of scientificity and rationality, with the overall empowerment level aligned with the development needs of publishing talents; however, different elements exhibit varying degrees of effectiveness in empowering the development of China's publishing talent contingent, presenting a heterogeneous pattern of contribution; and the PMC indices of the policy samples fluctuate significantly, with notable disparities in the empowerment effectiveness across different policies and hamper synergistic efficiency among them. To promote the high-quality development of the publishing talent contingent, China's policies for the development of publishing talent can optimize the empowerment mechanism in the following ways: First, by improving forecasting and supervision mechanisms as well as linkage and transmission mechanisms, timeliness management and facilitate seamless cycle connections should be strengthened. Second, by enhancing industry-education integration policies, implementing a talent cultivation responsibility-sharing system, and establishing talent connection and transformation mechanisms, the coverage of policy recipients should be expanded, and a pyramidal talent structure should be formed. Third, a full-chain mindset should be established. On the basis of consolidating and enhancing the advantages in talent cultivation, it is imperative to address the gaps in talent selection, utilization, and retention by building a public service platform for publishing professionals, creating an institutional environment conducive to stimulating innovative dynamism, and fostering a long-term incentive mechanism and development ecosystem competitive in the industry. Moreover, institutional linkages throughout the full chain should be strengthened to closely connect and integrate the development of all links, thereby forming an interdependent and well-functioning integrated chain. Fourth, by increasing the supply of supportive policy tools, upgrading the effectiveness of guidance-oriented policy tools, and adopting a combination of diverse policy tools, the structure of policy tools should be optimized to align with the development needs of talents. Fifth, the collaborative design should be deepened, and a scientific policy system should be constructed by improving the hierarchical structure of policy functions, strengthening the technical safeguards in the policy formulation, and establishing a regular interdepartmental collaboration mechanism.