Lagardere reported fourth quarter and full-year sales (but in the European tradition, will not add complete performance information, including profits, until next month). The publishing division registered fourth quarter sales of 546 million euros, up 1.4 percent overall versus 537 million euros a year ago (and 556 million euros two years ago), but down 0.8 percent on a like-for-like basis. For the year, publishing sales of 2.077 billion euros were up 1.9 percent(but down 1.2 percent on a like-for-like basis, chalked up to foreign exchange issues.) Sales at Hachette Book Group USA fell 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to a 12.8 […]
Archives for February 2013
Canada’s D&M Sold to Harbour Publishing Owners
Bankrupt Canadian publisher D&M has agreed to sell the assets of their flagship imprint, Douglas & McIntyre to Howard and Mary White, the owners of Harbour Publishing. The sale includes all books contracted or published under the Douglas & McIntyre imprint, with a list of approximately 500 titles. Howard White tells the National Post he believes “there is more life in this beast than people thought.” Scott McIntyre says in the announcement, “The successful conclusion of first the Greystone and now the Douglas & McIntyre asset sales confirms that the quality imprints of D&M are on a solid new path for the […]
Harper’s Performance Is Opaque Again
News Corp. reported second quarter earnings after the close of the market Wednesday and the company has resumed disclosing nothing in particular about HarperCollins. The publisher said in a brief statement they “had a favorable second quarter.” (The previous quarter was called “solid”; a year ago, the second quarter was judged “challenging.”) In Wednesday’s investor call, president and coo Chase Carey actually mentioned the book publisher, saying HarperCollins “made progress this year.” eBook sales worldwide comprised 14 percent of sales–down slightly from 15 percent in the previous quarter. In a separate memo Harper UK, which always accentuates the positive, said […]
Indigo Sales Decline On Fewer eReaders and Lack of Hits
Canada’s dominant bookseller Indigo reported a 4.9 percent decrease in sales of $335.6 million for the fiscal third quarter ending December 29. With echoes of Barnes & Noble’s holiday report, “the decrease was primarily driven by lower ereader revenues compared to last year,” along with a “lack of hit book titles in the quarter” and a reduction of their smaller-format stores by 8 locations. Superstore sales comps were down 5 percent, and small-format store comps fell 5.2 percent, though online sales increased 3.6 percent. EBITDA declined over 15 percent for the period, to $36 million. Their nonbook merchandise continues to expand: […]
Apple Self-Publishing Promotion Gets Outsized Promotion; Amazon Gets Legal Protection for System that Might Not be Legal
It’s easy to lose perspective when everyone is covering book publishing but there is no common context or compass. This week’s big example is Apple’s iBookstore extension of a merchandising pilot from their stores in Australia, Canada and the UK to the US: a promotional carousel of about 70 self-published books, dubbed Breakout Books. It’s getting home page rotation in the iBookstore for “at least two weeks” and then will be a less prominent standing category. Highlighted on the Smashwords blog, this modest promotion has become national news, as part of coverage of The Revolution. (Most self-published titles in the […]
Fielding, Goodwin Among Announced BEA Breakfast Speakers
Per their recent custom, Book Expo America is trickling out author breakfast announcements. Doris Kearns Goodwin will appear as part of the Adult Book and Author Breakfast on May 30, speaking about her upcoming October book THE BULLY PULPIT: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism. (The other three slots will be announced later.) Veronica Roth, Mary Pope Osborne, Rick Riordan, and a fourth author TBA will speak at the Children’s Author Breakfast on May 31. And Chris Matthews will serve as master of ceremonies for the June 1 Author Breakast, with Helen Fielding (for her untitled Bridget […]