The slide in Lagardere Publishing’s results compared to last year’s record Stephenie Meyer-driven performance eased in their fourth quarter, with sales of 556 million euros down 4.1 percent from 580 million euros a year ago. The company says “new best-sellers helped to improve the trend line in the United States and the United Kingdom compared with the first nine months,” even though HBG USA declined 14 percent in the fourth quarter due to more modest Meyer sales. (They say books from Jon Stewart, Keith Richards and Chelsea Handler helped to balance out that decline.) Hachette UK was down 7 percent in […]
Earnings Reports
Sales Grow But Indigo Profits Still Drop in Third Quarter
Third-quarter performance at Canada’s retailing giant Indigo looks reminiscent of Barnes & Noble’s trajectory, with ebooks, ereaders and online sales helping to lift sales while also weighing on expenses. Indigo’s revenues rose 14 percent to $387.6 million (CA), beating projections, but net profit of $30.2 million (or C$1.19 a share) was $4 million lower than a year ago, which was less than analysts expected. Superstore comps increased 2.6 per cent while smaller-store comps dropped 0.8 percent from last year’s levels, and the company’s online division was up 6.5 percent from a year ago. As with the previous quarter, digital investments […]
Harper Underperforms, But Claims A “Good Quarter”
Now buried in the News Corp. newspaper-dominated publishing segment, HarperCollins merits one clause in the company’s quarterly earnings report: income for the publishing division was held back “by lower contributions at HarperCollins.” In a brief statement, the publisher itself claims victory for having giving corporate more than they promised, regardless of comparisons to a year ago: “HarperCollins had a good quarter, exceeding its plan. The children’s division did extremely well, thanks to the Justin Bieber memoir, as well as two titles by Lauren Conrad. Sarah Palin’s America by Heart and Steve Harvey’s Straight Talk, No Chaser also performed well in […]
McGraw-Hill Ends Year with Q4 Profit Drop
McGraw Hill reported fourth quarter earnings of $153.8 million; or 50 cents a share, an 8 percent (or $27 million) drop from $167.3 million, or 53 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding items such as acquisitions and a prior-year gain related to the sale of BusinessWeek, earnings rose to 55 cents from 51 cents. Total revenue rose 4.2 percent to $1.52 billion for the quarter, but the education side saw revenue slide 4.6 percent to $496.3 million and profits decrease to $496.3 million, largely attributed to an overall decline in textbook open territory sales. For the year, total net […]
Amazon Says Kindle Sales Exceed Paperbacks–and Coincidentally, Profits Fall Even As Sales Rise Over $3 Billion
Amazon reported sales of $12.95 billion for the fourth quarter, up 36% from a year ago. But operating income actually declined, even with almost $3.5 billion in extra revenue, down $2 million at $474 million. The company says they sold “millions of third-generation Kindles” in the quarter, and indicates “Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com” and “this milestone has come even sooner than we expected – and it’s on top of continued growth in paperback sales.” The company adds that, “since the beginning of the year, for every 100 paperback books Amazon […]
Positioning Aside, Sales Fall at WH Smith High Street Stores By A Good Amount
The UK’s WH Smith presented weak sales data that people are working hard to put a positive gloss on. Same-store sales at their High Street stores were down 7 percent for the eight weeks ending January 22 (so holiday sales, sort of) and down 6 percent for the most recent 21 weeks. The company says that “excluding entertainment” product, same-store sales were down 3 three percent. They say they are “rebalancing” their store mix to focus books, stationery and candy. The Bookseller says retail analysts were told once you isolate book sales, they fell 2 percent on a same-store basis […]