HarperCollins’ parent company News Corp. reported third quarter fiscal year sales for the period ending March 31 after the close of the market on Tuesday. As you would expect overall sales rose at HarperCollins in the third quarter because the Harlequin acquisition makes them a bigger company, with sales of $402 million, up 14 percent on the quarter last year, while EBITDA increased 6 percent to $56 million. But on a comparable basis, HarperCollins itself without the addition of Harlequin saw sales decline 5 percent, down $18 million to $336 million, as core EBITDA fell 8 percent, to a still […]
Archives for May 2015
People, Etc.
After under 3 years in the post, Follett ceo Mary Lee Schneider is departing, to be replaced by Ray Griffith. He spent 20 years at Ace Hardware, where he was president and ceo until April 2013. The company said, “The son of a public school teacher and grade school principal who began his career managing a local retail store, Ray has the right experience and strategic vision to drive Follett to continued success.” In the announcement, Schneider comments: “I have been proud to be a part of the Follett story for the past 14 years, first as a member of the board […]
AAP Reissues Corrected January Stats, As Adult Sales Drove 5 Percent Increase
After we flagged a significant restatement of historical ebook data in the AAP’s January StatShot report on Wednesday, the organization identified a significant data error in the trade reporting and on Monday they issued a new report reflecting very different results. (So erase those previous impressions from your radar.) Most significantly, overall trade of sales of $533 million for January 2015 were up 5 percent compared to a year ago (rather than flat), rising $25 million. In contrast to 2014, the gains all came from adult sales — due to lighter holiday returns, frankly, more than big increases in publisher […]
Renewed Talk of A Possible McGraw-Hill Education IPO
On Friday Reuters reported that Apollo Global Management, the owners of McGraw-Hill Education, are once again talking to investment bankers about taking the publisher public — possibly by the end of the year. zthe “underwriter roles will not be finalized before the summer, four people said this week,” though, and the story touts the idea of an offering “potentially valuing the textbook company at around $5 billion.” But that’s a seller talking, rather than buyers. Remember, however, that talk of a McGraw-Hill Education IPO first surfaced in the press about a year ago. In that article — whose “sources” appeared to be bankers looking […]
People: Ruth Rendell Dies, and More
Ruth Rendell, 85, author of more than 60 novels under her own name as well as Barbara Vine, died May 2 from complications of a stroke suffered in January. Rendell wrote 24 Inspector Wexford novels starting with From Doon with Death (1964) as well as many standalone suspense novels, including 14 under the Barbara Vine name. Rendell’s final novel, Dark Corners, will be published by Cornerstone and Scribner in October. Michael McKenzie will join Algonquin as executive director of publicity on May 26, working out of the company’s New York offices and overseeing both adult and young readers lists. Previously […]
Haruf’s Final Novel Leads June Indie Next List; May Picks from iBooks, Amazon and Costco
Kent Haruf‘s final, posthumous novel OUR SOULS AT NIGHT is the ABA’s No. 1 Indie Next pick for June (and makes the iBooks Store’s top picks for May as well). The rest of the list features the following (including 5 books, asterisked, you can start reading right now in our free spring/summer Buzz Books ebook; download it now while you still can, since our big fall/winter Buzz Books collections will be landing soon in advance of BEA): Uprooted, by Naomi Novik The Sunlit Night, by Rebecca Dinerstein The Invasion of the Tearling, by Erika Johansen *The Water Knife, by Paolo […]