Barnes & Noble Education reported fourth quarter results on Tuesday morning, with a strong finish to the fiscal year, as sales rose 7.6 percent (or $20.8 million) to $294.8 million, with same-store sales up 4.5 percent in the period. They incurred $8.3 million in restructuring costs related to the Yuzu debacle, however (they have transitioned their failed etextbook platform to VitalSource), leaving the company with an operating loss of $4.2 million and a net loss of $2.8 million in the quarter. For the full fiscal year, sales of $1.808 million were up $35 million (or 2 percent), with a whisper […]
Archives for June 2016
It Was A Poor January for AAP Publishers
The AAP released a belated StatShot report with sales statistics from their roughly 1,200 reporting publishers for the month of January 2016. (Yes, the AAP is about two months behind their normal schedule for these monthly reports.) Their data shows a weak start to 2016 for the reporting group, with overall trade sales of $450.6 million down almost $79 million, or 14.9 percent, from $529.5 million a year ago. Adult sales were down more in dollars, at $338.9 million, down 50.3 million, while children’s and young adult sales were down more in percentage terms, at $111.7 million down 13.6 percent […]
Another Best of 2016 So Far, and More
In a departure, the Pennie’s Pick at Costco for July is not a single title — or indeed a printed book of any kind. Rather, the warehouse club’s top book buyer recommends trying an audiobook. (While audiobooks have indeed been booming, the market growth is in digital audio while Costco is trying to sell customers cds.) iBooks has joined the trend of picking and promoting favorite books for the first half of the year, offering four lists of 10 picks from Favorite Bestsellers and Standout Debuts to Books that Lived Up to the Hype and Surprise Hits We Loved. The […]
People
Michelle Howry will join Hachette Books as executive editor on July 11. Previously she was executive editor at Touchstone. Laurie Chittenden has moved over to St. Martin’s Press as executive editor from Thomas Dunne Books, where she held the same position. Rhea Lyons will join Rodale as subsidiary rights director on July 11. She spent the past five years as a scout for Franklin & Siegal. Jordan Kost has been promoted to creative director at Albert Whitman. Joe Jackson has joined Princeton University Press as senior editor, economics. Previously he was economics editor at the University of Chicago Press. Simon […]
Brexit, “Day One”
As you surely know already, the UK’s surprise vote in favor of exiting the European Union has left people all over the world trying to figure out the ramifications of a process that could take 2 years or more to actually execute. The most immediate impact is in financial markets, which abhor uncertainty and look to put a price on the outcome of that process before it has even begun. And the trading effect is twofold — altering equity values worldwide, primarily downward, while also driving currency exchange fluctuations, there primarily lowering the value of the British pound against other […]
More Barnes & Noble Fiscal Facts
Barnes & Noble followed their headline fourth quarter press release with more extensive SEC filings by the end of the day on Thursday providing a number of additional details worth reviewing: Settlement Credits Perhaps contributing to the company’s slightly positive sales forecast for the new fiscal year, BN says that their customers have been allocated up to $95.7 million in total credits as a result of Apple’s settlement of the ebook pricing lawsuit. Though redemptions of the first round of ebook settlement credits, funded by the publishers, were higher than anticipated — running at about 76 percent of the available funds — for […]