McGraw Hill reported results for the fourth quarter and full year Tuesday morning, providing further details on the sale of its education division to Apollo Global Management (which the company expects to close by the end of the first quarter of 2013.) Now counted one the side as “discontinued operations,” the Education division recorded a net loss of $406 million for the quarter and $239 million for the year. Adjusted net income from discontinued operations for the fourth quarter and full year were $9 million and $196 million, respectively. The losses were driven by a big writedown against the K-12 […]
People
Kobo executive Michael Tamblyn was promoted recently to the new position chief content officer for the ebookseller, and that move was officially announced today. He is responsible for Kobo’s content acquisition and sales, publisher and industry relations, and localized merchandising experiences across all of their services. CEO Michael Serbinis says in the announcement: “Michael Tamblyn’s leadership in the industry and his hands-on approach to working with publishers and authors has been instrumental to Kobo’s success. In his new role, he will continue to grow our existing catalogue and drive Kobo’s expansion into new content categories.” Rebecca Strauss will be moving […]
Bookselling: Longfellow Books Suffers Serious Water Damage; Books-A-Million to Close More Stores; and More
Longfellow Books in Portland, ME suffered extensive damage in the wake of the blizzard that hit much of the Northeastern US. “Apparently the wind blew in a window on the second floor, which caused pipes to freeze,” the store wrote on its Facebook page. The sprinkler system also turned on and “drenched the store’s books”, causing damage to nearly half of the store’s 30,000 titles. Co-owner Chris Bowe told the Portland Press-Herald he hopes Longfellow can re-open by Thursday night, in time for a Valentine’s Day benefit reading. In store closure news, Books-A-Million will close its Charlotte, NC location by […]
People, Etc.
Mary Ann Naples is returning to book publishing as publisher of Rodale Books, starting March 4, following detours to OpenSky and then, briefly, Zola Books (as head of business development; she will now join Zola’s strategic advisory board.) Naples had been a co-founder of literary agency The Creative Culture after working at Hyperion. Jim Hanas will join HarperCollins as director of audience development, reporting to cmo Angela Tribelli. Previously he was social media editor at the New York Observer. In the UK, Harper is once again reshuffling and rebranding imprints, consolidating their nonfiction lines. Harper Press and parts of Collins are […]
At Lagardere, Sales Up Slightly for Fourth Quarter and Full Year, As US eBook Growth Drops Off
Lagardere reported fourth quarter and full-year sales (but in the European tradition, will not add complete performance information, including profits, until next month). The publishing division registered fourth quarter sales of 546 million euros, up 1.4 percent overall versus 537 million euros a year ago (and 556 million euros two years ago), but down 0.8 percent on a like-for-like basis. For the year, publishing sales of 2.077 billion euros were up 1.9 percent(but down 1.2 percent on a like-for-like basis, chalked up to foreign exchange issues.) Sales at Hachette Book Group USA fell 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to a 12.8 […]
Indigo Sales Decline On Fewer eReaders and Lack of Hits
Canada’s dominant bookseller Indigo reported a 4.9 percent decrease in sales of $335.6 million for the fiscal third quarter ending December 29. With echoes of Barnes & Noble’s holiday report, “the decrease was primarily driven by lower ereader revenues compared to last year,” along with a “lack of hit book titles in the quarter” and a reduction of their smaller-format stores by 8 locations. Superstore sales comps were down 5 percent, and small-format store comps fell 5.2 percent, though online sales increased 3.6 percent. EBITDA declined over 15 percent for the period, to $36 million. Their nonbook merchandise continues to expand: […]