Bertelsmann announced results for the full year 2022, and while the parent company’s sales grew 8.3 percent to a record of €20.2 billion, sales at Penguin Random House rose 4.8 percent (or €193 million) to €4.223 billion—below the target for the year and “largely due to exchange rate effects,” especially the strong US dollar. Organically, sales fell 3.3 percent, while foreign exchange produced a gain of 7.3 percent during the year. Those “reduced sales levels” were “mainly due to normalization of book markets.” Operating EBITDA for PRH fell 11.8 percent to €666 million, down from €755 million in 2021, “due […]
Archives for March 2023
Storytel Acquires Finnish Audiobook Streaming Business
Swedish audiobook company Storytel has acquired the audiobook streaming arm of Finnish bookstore chain Suomalainen Kirjakauppa, which is owned by the Otava Group. Subscribers to the audiobook business, Suomalainen Plus, will be merged into Storytel’s user base. Storytel ceo Johannes Larcher said, “This agreement strengthens Storytel’s position in the vibrant Finnish market and as the Nordic market leader. We are also very pleased to deepen our relationship with the leading Finnish publishing and media owner Otava Ltd, who we had the pleasure of welcoming as a new shareholder in connection with our directed share issue in November.”
Obituary: DM Thomas
DM Thomas, author of The White Hotel, has died at 88. Thomas was a scholar of Russian literature and a poet, and also wrote Ararat and Eating Pavlova.
Read With Jenna April Pick
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Booker Prize Names Its Trophy “Iris”
Following a competition and a public vote, The Booker Prize has named its statuette "Iris," after Iris Murdoch.