Pearson released brief results for the third quarter in their 9-month trading update, with sales and operating profit on track to meet expectations for the year. “Underlying” (currency-neutral) sales grew 7 percent in the quarter. Higher Education sales continued their longstanding steady decline — falling 4 percent overall, and 4 percent in the US, “consistent with expectations.” Ever-chipper in the face of this erosion of what once was their core business, the company reports, “Pearson+ is performing well with robust growth versus prior year Fall semester.” The company’s biggest gains were in English Language Learning as borders reopen—up 36 percent—and […]
Archives for October 2022
Scholastic Boosts Their Slumping Stock with $75 Million Buyback
Scholastic has lifted their depressed stock price with an announcement Monday of a $75 million share purchase program through a modified Dutch Auction. The offer opens on Tuesday, October 25 and is scheduled to close by November 22, and will buy back shares at an expected price of between $35 and $40 a share. (On Friday, shares had closed at $33.63 a share.) The company says it is able to finance the buyback through cash on hand. The market has responded as expected, pushing shares up by over $4 a share in the first hour of trading on Monday, though […]
PW Best Books of the Year
Publishers Weekly released their best books of 2022.
People 10/21
Book Critics Build Careers, But Can’t Make a Living
For this first in a series looking at compensation in different corners of the book business, we found that pay for book critics varies widely by publication and type of piece—but none of it is enough to live on. The financial struggle of being a book reviewer has real influence on the way books are seen, and the publishing industry as a whole. Reviews—whether they’re positive or negative, and whether they exist at all—can influence sales, and subsequently what books are published and how they’re marketed. Many sources we spoke to for this article—more than a dozen emerging and established […]
Imprints: Little, Brown Ink
Little, Brown Children’s is launching Little, Brown Ink, a graphic novel imprint for young readers focused on “authentic, visual stories that readers will relate to, learn from, and return to again and again.” Andrea Colvin, editorial director, graphic publishing, will lead the imprint, which will publish approximately 20 titles a year, both fiction and nonfiction, ranging from early readers to middle grade to young adult. Existing Little, Brown Children’s graphic novels will now fall under the imprint. Megan Tingley, president & publisher, Little, Brown Children’s said, “Under the expert guidance of Andrea Colvin, LBYR’s graphic novel publishing has grown exponentially, […]