• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register
Publishers Lunch logo Publishers Lunch logo
  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help
Login Sign Up
  • Personnel
  • AI
  • Compensation
  • Unions
  • Book Bans
  • New Releases
  • Earnings
  • The Trial
  • Archives
Publishers Lunch logo
  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help
  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

November 16, 2010By Michael Cader

Publishing Flat At Courier As They Take Another Writedown on Creative Homeowner Line; Hastings Keeps Selling Fewer New Books

November 16, 2010By Michael Cader

Courier reported that both fourth quarter and full-year sales rose 3 percent, at $68.4 million and $257.1 million respectively, but weakness in the home improvement market led to yet another writedown at their Creative Homeowner publishing unit. They took a $4.7 million non-cash impairment charge due to “the systemic problems it currently faces in the home improvement market,” bringing fourth quarter net income down to $1.1 million.

The publishing division had sales of $11.9 million in the fourth quarter, even with a year ago, as a 6 percent increase at Dover was negated by a 23 percent decline at Creative Homeowner. For the year, publishing sales of $46 million were down 2 percent (or $800,000) from a year go. CEO James F. Conway III said in the release, “Given the adverse retail environment, we were happy to see Dover sales rise as well as they did, helped by children’s books as well as direct-to-consumer, online and international sales…. For the last two years we have aggressively reduced costs at Creative Homeowner as that market has contracted.”
Release

Hastings Entertainment announced third quarter sales yesterday of $112.3 million, basically flat, with a slightly improved net loss of $3.1 million. New book sales suffered, declining 9.3 percent, as used and value book sales rose 7.8 percent. Overall same-store book sales were down 6.2 percent. The company says the declines are “to some degree attributable to the increasing popularity of electronic book readers, and decreased sales of magazines.” They add that
“electronic book readers are impacting new book sales, but we have positioned ourselves to soften this impact through offering a variety of used and value books at price points that resonate well with our customers.”
Release

Filed Under: Booksellers, Earnings Reports, Free, Publishers

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login

Forgot Password Quick Pass User Login
Get Full Access
The Publishing Industry’s Essential Daily Read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • Sourcebooks Makes Inc.'s Best Workplaces 2025 List June 18, 2025 Magazine list
  • Pearson to Acquire Career and Technical Education Leader eDynamic Learning June 16, 2025 Press Release
  • James Frey Has Rich Friends, and They Like His New Book June 12, 2025 WSJ
  • Leon Levy Foundation Awards $300,000 Grant to the Authors Guild Foundation to Preserve Literary Advocacy Archives June 10, 2025 Authors Guild
  • Trending: Tote Bags That Hold Just A Book June 10, 2025 Elle
  • Hadley, MA B&N Workers OK Union Contract After Two Years of Negotiation June 6, 2025 Daily Hampshire Gazette
  • Authors Guild Update On Albert Whitman Bankruptcy Hearing June 5, 2025 AG post
  • "Frozen Yogurt and Fiction Collide" As Pinkberry Promotes Emily Henry (And Their Limited Flavor, Summer Melon Crush) June 3, 2025 Press release
  • JennaFest Draws 200 Readers; She Says She Is Collaborating On a Screen Project with Elin Hilderbrand June 2, 2025 Today
  • Chicago Sun-Times Investigation Admits Everyone Remotely Connected to Bogus AI Supplement Was Lazy, Greedy, or Both May 30, 2025 Sun-Times
Publishers Marketplace logo

Contact Us

News

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Report News
  • Discuss
  • Classifieds
  • Rights Offerings

Deals

  • Report A Deal

Books

  • Buzz Books

Jobs

  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy Terms of Use