McGraw-Hill reported top and bottom line progress in Q2, touting the success of its digital offerings, which now comprise 51 percent of total billings. Sales of $385 million for the quarter were flat, while total billings of $394 million were up $41 million from a year ago. Meanwhile, the cost of servicing its $2.1 billion dollar debt continues to chew through the company’s earnings. The quarter showed a net loss of $42 million — thanks to $47 million spent paying off interest. The comprehensive loss was higher, at $51 million, a little better than the $54.5 million loss in Q2 […]
Archives for August 2019
People, Etc.
At Flatiron, Bryn Clark has been promoted to editor and Sarah Murphy to executive editor. Agnes Ahlander Turner has been promoted to executive vice president at Maria B. Campbell Associates, and Beniamino Ambrosi and Johanna Gustavsson both been named vice president. In the UK, Noel Murphy will join Granta Books and Granta Magazine as commercial director starting September 23. He was previously sales and marketing director at Yale University Press. Imprints Orion will launch Dash, a digital fiction imprint, this fall, run by commissioning editor Victoria Oundjian. Bookselling April Newton (£8.37 an hour), Kimi Wright (£8.71 an hour), Stefan Pace […]
Salinger eBooks Are Released; New Works Will Take Another 5 to 7 Years
Little, Brown announced that they will release ebook editions of J.D. Salinger’s four books for the first time on August 13. His son Matt Salinger notes in the release, ‘There were few things my father loved more than the full tactile experience of reading a printed book, but he may have loved his readers more—and not just the ‘ideal private reader’ he wrote about, but all his readers. As it became clear to us that increasing numbers of readers today read only ebooks, and after I was taken severely (if also humorously) to task by a reader with a disability […]
People, Etc.
Sarah Guan has joined Erewhon as editor. She previously worked at Ace, DAW, and Orbit. Martin Cahill joins as marketing and publicity manager. He was previously a literary agent freelancer, publicity and marketing specialist, and fiction writer. Madison Perdue left Amberjack Publishing on August 6. She was serving as acting marketing director, after joining the company in February as executive assistant. Publishing director Justin Mitson said they will hire a successor soon. In the meantime, Mitson told PL that their “publication timeline could be impacted by this change” and they did “hold our production, so we can re-set our efforts.” […]
Harper Has Weaker Fourth Quarter, But Closes Fiscal Year with Record Earnings
News Corp. reported fiscal fourth quarter earnings on Thursday afternoon, as HarperCollins recorded a comparatively poor fiscal fourth quarter, with sales of $419 million, down $71 million from the previous year. But it was more of a return to normal, since a year ago they were up $83 million for quarter versus the same period 2017 — boosted in part by $28 million of revenue from Amazon Studios’ television license for J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. (For Q4 2017 sales were $407 million; for Q4 2016, sales had been $433 million.) Sales also look lower because of […]
Simon & Schuster Continues to Build Sales and Profits
CBS reported second quarter earnings on Thursday afternoon, with sales at Simon & Schuster up $11 million (or 5.3 percent) to $218 million — a new company high for the second quarter, and their best since 2014. The publisher also extended their long streak of increased profits, recording their eighteenth consecutive quarter of gains: Operating income of $33 million was up $2 million from a year ago. The gains were attributed to “higher print book and digital audio sales,” with top releases including Howard Stern Comes Again by Howard Stern and The Pioneers by David McCullough. CEO Carolyn Reidy said […]