In line with a strong holiday for book sales, HarperCollins reported a big fiscal second quarter: Sales reached $540 million, up $102 million over the same quarter last year, and EBITDA rose to $104 million, compared to $63 million a year ago. (The holiday quarter in 2019 was a soft one for the publisher, however; two years ago they had second quarter sales of $496 million and EBITDA of $88 million.) The sales increase included $13 million from recent acquisitions (the Egmont businesses bought earlier in the year) and $5 million in foreign exchange gains. Acquisitions added $3 million to […]
Archives for February 2021
Welbeck Reports First Financial Results
Welbeck Publishing Group reported financial results for the first time since its launch, following operations since the acquisition of Carlton Books and Andre Deutsch on April 1, 2019. For nine months of operations, they recorded sales of £13 million and operating profit of £1.3 million, which they call “solid… despite the vagaries of the pandemic.” The company reports, “The illustrated business continued its historical robustness, and the combined business delivered a well-balanced result for the year.” Executive directors Mark Smith and Marcus Leaver commented: “We have seen a successful integration of Carlton Books into WPG and we’re both pleased with […]
People, Etc.
Taylor Maccoux has been promoted to editor for Sourcebooks Wonderland. Jennifer Gingerich has joined Nelson Books as associate publisher. She previously lead and directed content development for Ramsey Solutions. Brian Ramcharan has joined Penguin Random House Audio as a producer. He was most recently a junior producer at Simon & Schuster Audio. Sarah Gerton has been promoted to agent at Curtis Brown. Pearson announced that Michael Lynton will step down from the board at the 2021 annual meeting. Forthcoming Hunter Biden will tell his story in a memoir, BEAUTIFUL THINGS, which will be published by Gallery Books on April 6. […]
Reese’s Book Club Is Now An App, Adds “Pay It Forward” Platform
Reese Witherspoon’s book club launched an app and a dedicated site, which serves up her monthly recommendations alongside merchandise, community features, contests and more. With it comes a pledge, through an initiative called The Readership, to “champion diverse writers” and “support book retailers, especially our favorite indie bookstores.” That marks a significant and welcome change, since much of the club’s market-moving impact had flowed to Audible, which Witherspoon’s company Hello Sunshine prominently partnered with in 2018. Though no formal announcement was made, Reese’s Book Club vp Cynthia Rupeka told PL that “our partnership with Audible has ended.” For the first […]
Agent Colleen Oefelein Fired from Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency for Parler and Gab Accounts
Colleen Oefelein was fired on January 25 from her position as an agent at Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency after the agency discovered she had accounts on right wing-associated social media sites Parler and Gab. Jennifer De Chiara’s account is now private, but she had written in a public thread, “As of this morning, Colleen Oefelein is no longer an agent at The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency.” The thread continued, “The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency was distressed to discover this morning, January 25th, that one of our agents has been using the social media platforms Gab and Parler. […]
People, Etc.
Macmillan announced a restructuring of its central digital marketing team. Cristina Gilbert has been promoted to senior vice president, publishing and marketing strategy, reporting to Jon Yaged. Newly reporting to Gilbert will be Cara Chirichella, vp, digital marketing & technology and Jacob Fanning, senior director, email marketing and CRM. The evp, marketing & consumer strategy role is being eliminated, and Jeff Carroll will leave Macmillan. Hillary Scarbrough has been promoted to vp, business systems. Newly reporting to Scarbrough will be Clark Fife, senior director, metadata services. On the trade finance team, Jason Arvelo, vp, data science & analytics, will now […]