This will be the last daily newsletter this week. We will be back at least once next week, probably towards the end of the week, to stay on top of whatever develops. Deals newsletters will maintain their regular schedule through to Monday’s weekly round-up, and from there will also be more occasional — depending upon the flow of deal reports. As always, PublishersMarketplace.com works for you 24/7 no matter what, and we will be reporting and clipping news to the website, adding new deals as they flow in, posting job openings and more. We wish all of our readers happy, […]
Archives for December 2023
The Year in Legal News; Part 2
In the second half of our annual review of legal news, we recap the many lawsuits surrounding book banning and also touch on some other oddities that made their way to court this year. Book Banning For the second year in a row, book banning was a major concern. Strategies to combat the conservative-led bans against LGBTQ+ books and books by BIPOC authors in school libraries ranged from marketing campaigns to lawsuits. In May, PEN America, Penguin Random House, and a group of authors sued the Escambia County, FL school district where over 200 books had been targeted for banning, […]
Giving A Holiday Discount on PM
With the holidays upon us, we have one of those very occasional discount offers available. If someone in your life would like access to PublishersMarketplace.com, they can enjoy all that our site has to offer at 40 percent off the usual price for the first month! To qualify, enter this code — Happy23 — in the Promo Code: box that appears in the payment plan section of the Registration page. Feel free to share this offer with friends, and enjoy the holidays with some extra data. The code is valid for just a short time, through December 27.
The Year in Finance
Publishing financial results were a mixed bag in 2023, with some publishers “flying high” (Simon & Schuster, Bloomsbury) and some falling (Hachette, Scholastic), while others saw a bit of both (Harper Collins). According to the AAP, trade book sales faltered slightly in the first three quarters, and while some publishers have reported lower overall book sales and continued supply chain pressures, others are reaping the benefits of increased interest in commercial and genre fiction. Penguin Random House Bertelsmann expects full-year sales to be “moderately” over last year, with a flat operating profit and a slight decline in EBITDA. As yet, […]
2023: The Year in Mergers
2023 was the year of “finally” in mergers and acquisitions, as two long-in-the-making deals involving some of the largest trade publishers finally closed. Simon & Schuster was sold to KKR three-and-a-half years after their parent company started the sale process. And Lagardere (parent of Hachette Book Group and the rest of Lagardere Publishing) is finally controlled by Vivendi, two years after the latter launched their tender offer to acquire Lagardere, and three-and-a-half years after first buying a stake in Lagardere. In order to take control of Lagardere, Vivendi finally had to divest of Editis — after trying other options — […]
HBG Reports on Sustainability Initiatives
Hachette Book Group shared their environmental progress report for 2022-2023. “HBG’s environmental initiatives span many different areas, including paper sourcing, office recycling, energy usage, product transportation, and packaging,” they write. The company notes that in the past two years, all of their paper came from Forest Stewardship Certified and Sustainable Forestry Initiative fiber. In 2022 8.6 percent of their paper was recycled fiber, with 5.2 percent in 2023. (The company notes that there was a decline in the availability of recycled paper this year.) They also avoid using paper from endangered forests. “We remain committed to purchasing recycled papers when they […]