Lagardere released earnings results for the third quarter ended September 30, with publishing sales of €780 million, up 3.6 percent over the same period last year on a like-for-like basis (and €84 million higher overall). That topline result was driven primarily by acquisitions — €90 million from the addition of Workman Publishing and Paperblanks — and a substantial €66 million bonus from foreign exchange, €55 million of which comes from the strong US dollar. Another contributing factor was Colleen Hoover’s VERITY, which the company publishes in both the US and UK. In the US, sales were up 4.7 percent overall. […]
PRH Makes Diversity Gains in Entry Levels, Backslides in Management
PRH released their third annual workforce demographics report, showing flat or modest gains in diversity since last year. “At Penguin Random House, we strive to create books for everyone; having a workforce that represents the society we live in goes hand-in-hand with achieving this goal,” the report says. Among all non-warehouse employees, 71 percent are white, 10 percent are Asian, 9 percent are Latino, 6 percent are Black, and 3 percent are two or more races. American Indian, MENA, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander combined total 1.08 percent. This is a 1 percent increase in Black staff and a […]
Bloomsbury’s Top Properties Keep Growing
Bloomsbury released a trading update for the first six months of the fiscal year, ended August 31, reporting sales of £123 million (up 22 percent from last year on a topline basis, and 12 percent higher on an organic basis, leaving aside recent acquisitions). Profits before tax and highlighted items were £15.9 million, up 23 percent. In a release, CEO Nigel Newton said these are the highest-ever sales and profits in the first half. “These results demonstrate the strength and resilience of our strategy of publishing for both the consumer and academic markets, our growth of digital revenues and our […]
People 10/26
Callisto Slashes Workforce Again, Continues With Modest Crew
Three months after Callisto Media laid off 35 percent of its staff, the company instituted another deep round of cuts Monday—this time approximately 200 positions, or around 70 percent of its workforce—in all departments. An estimated 60 employees remain in the book-making departments (editorial, marketing, design, etc.). Access to internal systems, other than email, was reportedly turned off this weekend for the employees who would be laid off, and their emails were turned off at 5 PM Eastern on Monday. A press release issued Tuesday says that Callisto “today announced that it will immediately restructure its operations to focus on […]
New Books Publishing October 25
This week’s fiction releases include novels by Cormac McCarthy and Patricia Cornwell, while nonfiction includes new work from Siddhartha Mukherjee, Jemele Hill, and Ross Gay. Also out this week are T. Greenwood’s Such a Pretty Girl, excerpted in our Buzz Books 2022: Fall/Winter anthology, and Minerva Spencer’s The Boxing Baroness, available to sample in our Buzz Books 2022: Romance collection. 10 works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-october-25 15 nonfiction titles https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-october-25 We consult a number of sources in compiling our weekly lists and PM members can see our lists for the coming three months through this reference page. But if you want to make […]