Lagardere Publishing reported a strong second quarter on Tuesday afternoon, with sales of €733 million, up €56 million from a year ago, or 8.3 percent higher. For the first half of the year, sales were €1.309 billion (up €62 million), with recurring EBIT of €113 million, up a significant €48 million from the same period a year ago, a new high for the first half of the year — though traditionally they record most of their profits in the second half. Earnings were “driven by growth in the United Kingdom and the United States, a favorable sales mix in physical […]
Expanded Matcher Includes Editors, Too
Over the weekend we went live with our newest update of Matcher, our AI-powered feature that searches and analyzes deals, dealmakers and related data. using natural language descriptions of your work. The new Editor Matcher will help you find editors that “match” your submissions, just as Agent Matcher helps find agents that “match” your manuscript. Editor Matcher works the same way as Agent Matcher, producing a list of the most likely editors who have acquired similar projects and follows with a second list of possible matches to investigate. But with his update, we have significantly upgraded the matching itself — […]
Second Quarter Deals: Strong Investment In Adult Books, As Picture Books and Middle Grade Sink Children’s Sales
First quarter deal reports were up modestly after a bad start to 2023, helped by an early London Book Fair and marked by record six-figure deals — particularly at the higher end — continuing a trend of increased publisher investment in bigger deals. The second quarter of 2024 failed to keep up with a stronger comp from a year ago in total deals though for a very particular reason: Adult deals were actually up slightly versus last year, but children’s experienced a dramatic drop. They fell 17 percent, to their lowest second-quarter level since 2016 (even with an April Bologna […]
Booktopia Owes Creditors $60 Million; Was Pushed Into Bankruptcy By Credit Card Processor
Booktopia’s bankruptcy administrator told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the retailer owes creditors approximately $60 million (AU). McGrathNicol’s Keith Crawford said, “The vast majority of that debt is actually trade creditor debt, principally the suppliers of books,” who are unsecured creditors. The company has about 150,000 orders worth approximately $12 million that have not been fulfilled, many of those for pre-orders. And customers are holding $3 million in gift cards. The story reveals that the re-financing Booktopia had announced in June was derailed by their credit card processor. Booktopia executive chairman Peter George reports that, “Booktopia’s plans were hijacked in […]
CCC Announces Collective Solution for Internal AI Licenses
Copyright Clearance Center has officially announced their first long-in-development licensing program for AI re-use rights. This first step lets participating publishers include these rights in CCC’s annual copyright licenses (ACL), their enterprise content licensing program that businesses subscribe to. The license allows for non-exclusive, annually renewable rights to use content within AI systems for internal use. CCC president and ceo Tracey Armstrong says in the release, “It is possible to be pro-AI and pro-copyright, and to couple AI with respect for creators. Responsible AI starts with licensing, and in developing this license, CCC enables users to efficiently gain access to […]
HBG Restructures Workman; Cuts Two GCP Imprints While Expanding Fiction
Hachette Book Group announced a number of changes internally on Monday afternoon, which include an expected restructuring and full integration of Workman Publishing, along with both cuts and hiring plans at Grand Central, plus a number of new executive promotions. Changes at Workman have been long expected, since the $240 million acquisition (which closed on September 23, 2021) included a pledge to retain all of the company’s 300-plus employees for three years. (A number of longtime Workman executives retired shortly thereafter.) The company declined to indicate how many Workman division employees were laid off, though some of those people confirmed […]