The nation’s two biggest printers, Quad and LSC, both reported mediocre first quarter results, as the companies continue to hope to merge by mid-2019. Their reports underscore that demand from trade book publishers has little effect on prospects for these large, diversified players. At LSC, overall sales fell $84 million, or 9.1 percent, to $845 million, with a big net loss of $126 million (due mostly to after-tax charges for a pension settlement charge). Book sales of $260 million were 4.3 percent higher than a year ago (up 2.7 percent on an “organic” basis), which was “driven by increased education […]
