Wiley reported a strong fiscal first quarter, with sales of $488 million, up 13 percent from $431 million a year ago. Operating income rose more, to $41 million, up 36 percent from $30 million last year — though net income declined, due to a $20.7 million non-cash deferred tax expense following an increase in the UK’s corporate tax rate. Foreign exchange contributed $16.7 million in sales, and $3.7 million in adjusted EBITDA. The Academic & Professional Learning segment, which includes their trade/professional and education book publishing, was up 10 percent. Education publishing sales were $66.4 million, up $2.8 million, and […]
McGuigan Asks for Court Order to Pay Foundry Authors
Since the dispute between former Foundry partners Yfat Reiss Gendell and Peter McGuigan first surfaced, the most far-ranging impact has been on authors, experiencing delayed payments and stalled sub-rights activity. On Wednesday, McGuigan filed notice of an instant motion asking the court to order Gendell to approve outstanding payments due to authors at a hearing already scheduled for September 21. McGuigan also asks the court to order going forward that Gendell “review and object for a material reason, or approve all future payments posted on the bank website, within three (3) calendar days thereafter, without exception.” Accounts from Foundry bookkeeper […]
Barnes & Noble Education Sees A Glimmer of Reopening
Barnes & Noble Education reported results for the fiscal first quarter, ending July 31, “historically a period of low sales” and seasonal losses. With “the reopening of a majority of its campus stores,” revenues were a little less disastrous than a year ago, when they fell 35 percent. Sales were $241 million for the quarter, recovering $36 million but still well below normal, with a net loss of $(44.3) million, slightly better than the $(46.7) million loss a year ago. That was a little ahead of expectations and shares jumped over 15 percent in the first hour of trading Thursday […]
Substack Chips Away
In a perfect world the steady reporting on Substack and the world of book publishing would feature a stream of all the authors and publishers who turned down the well-financed subscription service’s offers, but that’s not how it works. First came the breaking news in the NY Post that Substack was going “to disrupt book publishing” with the high-profile signing of journalist Zack O’Malley Greenburg for a serialized book, We Are All Musicians Now. Then we learned about at length about the company joining the “burgeoning business” of book content by serializing two chapters of Anand Giridharadas’s book first published […]
WH Smith Says Travel Store Sales Are A Little Less Terrible
On the initial close of their fiscal year, UK retailer WH Smith is “encouraged by the improving trends” at their travel stores, which operated at 55 percent of fiscal 2019’s sales in the second half of the year. At their High Street bookstores, results have been flat or slightly declining during the fiscal year: The first quarter was up to 88 percent of pre-pandemic 2019 sales; Q2 was at 84 percent; and the second half was at 85 percent, but the most recent 8 weeks were are 84 percent. The company says, “We continue to focus on the return on […]
Beijing Book Fair Reschedules for September
After an abrupt postponement right before its planned start on August 25, the Beijing International Book Fair announced that it will proceed, running from September 14 through September 18. As previously planned, they will run a digital edition in parallel with the live fair. The BIBF International Publishing Forum is set to open on September 12, with much of the focus on technology and the education and STM professional publishing sectors.