At William Morrow, Kate Nintzel has been promoted to executive editor. At Candlewick, Mary Lee Donovan has been promoted to editorial director. At becker&mayer!, Dana Youlin has been promoted to editorial manager, Delia Greve has been promoted to senior editor, and Nicole Burns Ascue is now associate editor. In the UK, Anna Valentine will re-join Orion in May as publishing director, non-fiction, reporting to Amanda Harris, newly promoted to deputy publisher. Valentine was most recently publishing director at HarperCollins UK. Mavis Gallant, 91, one of Canada’s most distinguished short story writers and literary figures, died Tuesday morning in Paris, where […]
Earnings Reports
Simon & Schuster Finishes with Record Profits
Simon & Schuster reported fourth quarter sales of $225 million, up $10 million from a year ago, helping the publisher to finish the year with sales rising $19 million, at $809 million in all. Parent company CBS said in their announcement that year-end results “reflect growth in print book sales.” Once again, margins rose more than sales, and S&S had record profits for the year. Fourth quarter OIBDA was $37 million for the quarter, compared to $31 million a year ago. For the full year, OIBDA of $113 million was up $24 million, and operating income of $106 million was […]
Lagardere Publishing Finishes with Improved Fourth Quarter
Lagardere’s book publishing units finished the year with a good fourth quarter (after another soft year overall): sales of €569 were up 4.2 percent overall from €546 a year ago, and up 6.7 percent on an underlying basis. The UK division, which has been lagging most of the year, finished with an “exceptional performance,” up 12.6 percent, and their big French unit also had notable gains in both general literature and distribution. For the full year, sales of €2.066 billion were up down slightly on an actual basis (from €2.077 billion), but up 1.0 percent on an underlying basis (primarily […]
A Good Quarter for Harper
HarperCollins reported a good fiscal second quarter, ending December 31, 2013, with sales rising 4 percent $391 million and EBITDA gaining further, up by a third to $68 million (compared to sales of $377 million and EBITDA of $51 million a year ago). The company cited “the higher contribution to profits from ebooks and ongoing operational efficiencies coupled with higher revenues” for the strong earnings, with sales led by Veronica Roth’s Divergent series, and a good performance from their general books and children’s divisions. eBook sales were 39 percent higher than a year ago, but comprised 17 percent of all revenues, […]
Rowman & Littlefield Says Publishing Unit Has “Best Year” Ever; Sales Rise for Indigo But Earnings Drop Sharply
Rowman & Littlefield announced their 2013 results informally, saying that book and journal sales rose by $4.1 million (or more than 8 percent) to $51 million for the year, helped by their acquisition of Down East Books. Digital products comprised just under 10 percent of publishing sales. They launched an ebookstore within their web site last summer, selling “around 12,000 ebooks” directly. Their distribution companies NBN and NBNInternational had client sales of $79 million in the year. CEO Jed Lyons declared in the announcement: “2013 was our best year since we started the business in 1975.” This time a year […]
Amazon Continues Growing, But Less Than Analysts Guessed; Income Rises At Bertelsmann
Amazon reported fourth quarter sales after the close of the market on Thursday, with sales of $25.6 billion (up 20 percent) and net income of $239 million, or 51 cents a share. (That’s a profit margin of less than 1 percent.) Analysts were expecting slightly higher sales and considerably better earnings, so the stock is down about 9 percent — or roughly $35 a share — in morning trading so far. Before you get carried away, however, note that the stock was up $19 a share yesterday ahead of the earnings. And even at today’s lower levels, shares are still 37 percent […]