In the European style, a month after reporting 2012 sales, Lagardere added a second report on their earnings. As noted previously, sales rose slightly at Lagardere Publishing to 2.077 billion euros (up 39 million euros), but EBIT nudged up less, gaining just 2 million euros at 223 million euros for the year. The company says that, “as expected, the second half of the year was marked by a substantial rise in profitability, enabling to maintain a high operating margin level of 10.7 percent throughout 2012.” Profits were “significantly higher” in the UK “thanks to commercial successes, the dramatic growth of […]
Archives for March 2013
AAP Objects to Amazon’s Application for Closed .Book Domain
As ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) solicits comments on applications for thousands of potential new “generic” domain names (from corporate names like .Bloomberg to regular words like .blog and .search), the AAP has objected to an application made by Amazon’s Luxmbourg subsidiary for the “.book” domain. Nine different companies applied for .book, including Google, a Bowker subsidiary and a company run by Proquest (and former Bowker) executive Annie Callahan. Reportedly, the application fee for the new domains was $185,000. The AAP objects specifically to the Amazon application but not the others, because Amazon said in their application […]
WSJ Reports Hyperion To Put Backlist on Market, Focus Entirely on TV/Film Properties
With each season Hyperion has been cutting back on publishing frontlist adult fiction and nonfiction titles that aren’t connected in some way to sister companies ABC and Disney, and a report in the WSJ Wednesday night indicates how far Hyperion is willing to go with this mandate — to the point of selling off its backlist. Citing a single “person familiar with the situation,” the paper says Hyperion is “putting its backlist of older titles on the market” and “will look for books either linked to ABC television properties or that it believes can be extended to television or other […]
Direct Publishing: Random Defends Hydra; McGuire Mystery Solved; Lulu Pairs with ASI
Laments over the contractual terms offered by Random House’s digital-only imprint Hydra escalated to Boing Boing, naturally, as Random House digital publishing director Allison Dobson e-mailed the SWFA Wednesday afternoon and invited them to meet with her to discuss their concerns. “While we respect your position, you’ll not be surprised to learn that we strongly disagree with it, and wish you had contacted us before you published your posts,” Dobson writes. She explains: “Hydra offers a different– but potentially lucrative–publishing model for authors: a profit share…. As with every business partnership, there are specific costs associated with bringing a book successfully […]
Results Rise at Wiley, But Restructuring Will Cut Jobs, With $25 Million Charge This Quarter
Third quarter sales at Wiley rose 5 percent to $472 million, as operating income of $83.6 million rose 7 percent and adjusted net income of $55.9 million (or 93 cents a share) was up 4.3 percent. (Adjusted results reflect the trade publishing properties sold to Google and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which comprised $12 million of sales in the quarter.) That performance beat analysts’ expectations of $456 million in sales of 83 cents per share of profits. At the same time, Wiley advised that they expect to take a $25 million restructuring charge in the current quarter, and “at least one […]
People, Etc.
Mary Albi is returning to Phaidon as vice president, leading their US operation as of April 1, reporting to ceo David Davies. She had run Phaidon in the US previously until leaving in 2003. Albi has been sales and marketing director at Egmont USA since 2009. Amanda D’Acierno has been promoted to svp, publisher at Random House Audio, Fodor’s, and Living Language. At Crown/Hogarth, Zack Wagman has been promoted to senior editor, and Christine Kopprasch moves up to associate editor. Brandon Proia has joined the University of North Carolina Press as acquisitions editor. Previously he was an editor at Public Affairs. […]