News Corp. reported fiscal third quarter sales on Thursday, with book publisher HarperCollins registering their seventh straight quarterly increase in sales. Building on the strong holiday quarter, sales once again rose 6 percent to $421 million, up $23 million from a year ago. And the gain would have been larger, since the new revenue recognition standard we have been explaining for a while now reduced revenues by $17 million in the quarter. (The way the standard has been applied, it raised Penguin Random House’s reported sales by €147 million or $173 million for the full year, and so far it […]
Archives for May 2019
People, Etc.
At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Tatyana Rosalia has been promoted to senior production associate for Margaret K. McElderry Books and Atheneum; and Morgan York to associate production editor for S&S Children’s and Paula Wiseman Books. Kate Prosswimmer has joined Margaret K. McElderry Books as editor. She was previously associate editor at Sourcebooks. Courtney Payne has been promoted to associate director of trade sales at Chronicle Books. Ian Delaney has been promoted to associate sales manager. Cengage has promoted Rebecca McNamara to the new position of chief integration officer, reporting directly to CEO Michael Hansen, leading all integration initiatives for the company’s […]
HMH Stock Down on Sales Decline
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt reported Q1 earnings May 9, for the period ending March 31, 2019, with sales of $194.6 million declining by just over $5 million, and seasonal net loss of ($117.4) million, $16 million worse than a year ago. With weakness across the educational publishing markets, as shown by the planned merger of Cengage and McGraw-Hill (itself a bigger competitor looming for HMH), Houghton’s stock was down about 25 percent in the first hour of trading on the weak report. Trade sales (now called HMH Books & Media, but otherwise representing the same segment) were $40.8 million, up $4.1 […]
People, Etc.
Lauren Jackson has joined Saga Press as publicity and marketing manager. Dinah Dunn has partnered with Red Herring Design to form Indelible Editions, a book packager of illustrated nonfiction. She was most recently with Black Dog & Leventhal. John Hardy, senior director of distributor sales and retail marketing for Simon & Schuster, is retiring after 22 years with the company. Hardy joined the Pocket Books sales group in 1997 as national sales manager. SVP sales Gary Urda said, “What I will miss most about John is his boundless enthusiasm for our books, authors and company; his positive can do attitude […]
Penguin Random House Offers Program to Help Indies Transition from Baker & Taylor
Penguin Random House announced to independent booksellers who have been getting all of their inventory from Baker & Taylor an Indies Express program, following the news that B&T will exit trade distribution. The initiative promises individualized “live-person support” to “make the upcoming transition as easy as possible for you and your staff,” and is good through October 1. The offer includes a streamlined new-account application and credit-approval process, a lower unit-minimum on the first order, a dedicated PRH sales director “with expertise in helping B&T customers transition to ordering directly” and “dedicated PRH sales reps (community bookstore specialists) to help […]
Reality Bites: Penguin Random House No Longer Expecting Obama Book In 2019
Since early 2018 Penguin Random House had been “very confident” and hopeful that former president Barack Obama’s book would be published in 2019. Now the AP reports that the publisher “started alerting foreign publishers and others” that the book is not expected for publication this year any more. (In the early days of the deal with the Obamas, there was talk that the president’s book would come first and Michelle’s would follow.) Lead time was running out to be sure; note that in 2018, Michelle Obama’s BECOMING was formally announced at the end of February for publication on November 13. […]