Courier reported that both fourth quarter and full-year sales rose 3 percent, at $68.4 million and $257.1 million respectively, but weakness in the home improvement market led to yet another writedown at their Creative Homeowner publishing unit. They took a $4.7 million non-cash impairment charge due to “the systemic problems it currently faces in the home improvement market,” bringing fourth quarter net income down to $1.1 million. The publishing division had sales of $11.9 million in the fourth quarter, even with a year ago, as a 6 percent increase at Dover was negated by a 23 percent decline at Creative […]
Earnings Reports
Ad Recovery Continues to Help Bertelsmann Results
Bertelsmann has reported continuing strength in their business, with sales for the third quarter of 3.649 billion euros and operating EBIT of 265 million euros, yielding after-tax profit of 111 million euros. (In the European tradition, they simply report results for the first 9 months of the year; we subtract out and isolate the most recent quarter, since the other results have already been reported.) The company says results were “fueled by a recovery in the overall economy including an upturn in the advertising industry; long-view cost measures; and a brisk business performance both in conventional and digital media.” They […]
Kobo Helps Indigo Grow Sales But Lose Money; Will Seek More Digital Investment
At Canada’s retailing giant Indigo, sales rose 3.7 percent to $214.8 million (CA) in their second quarter, even as superstore comps fell 0.7 percent and smaller-store comps dropped 4.8 percent. The company swung to a net loss of $1.7 million, compared to a profit of $2.2 million a year ago, disappointing analysts, who were looking for the company to break even on somewhat higher sales. As with Barnes & Noble, the digital transition is adding costs, even as the company likes their prospects. CEO Heather Reisman says in the release, “we are pleased with our top line revenue growth, particularly […]
Sales Fall At Hachette In Third Quarter On Tough Meyer Comps
Lagardere reported third quarter sales in brief, with the publishing division’s “performance dented by a drop in sales of the Stephenie Meyer saga, and by a delay of a few weeks in delivering new secondary school textbooks in France.” They note that results are also lower “due to the non-recurrence of the sale of the international rights to the Twilight saga.” With sales of 634 million euros this quarter, by our count that’s down approximately 50 million euros or over 7 percent from 684.6 million euros a year ago. (They don’t formally break out third quarter sales.) Besides the difficult […]
At Simon & Schuster, Profits Rise Even As Sales Slide
Sales at Simon & Schuster declined by $12.7 million in their third quarter, or 5.5 percent, at $217.7 million, but profits rose more, with adjusted OIBDA up $2.8 million (or 10 percent) to $31.2 million, and operating income of $29.5 million up 11 percent. CEO Carolyn Reidy says the increase in earnings is due to a combination of “a lot of the cost savings we worked hard on the last year and a half,” along with a more profitable mix of formats and associated gains from things like renegotiating their children’s book printing contracts. Reidy believes “there’s been a very […]
News Corp. Eliminates Book Publishing Results Breakouts
HarperCollins parent company News Corp. reported first quarter results after the close of the market Tuesday–and HarperCollins has disappeared from the radar. Among the company’s smaller-producing units, Harper’s results have been merged with the larger “newspapers and information services” accounting lines from previous reports. In a conference call with investors, company officials said “this reporting change recognizes both the way we group these businesses and a smaller percentage of total earnings that these businesses now represent.” Reinforcing the diminished importance of HarperCollins in the overall corporate picture, their name is not mentioned once in the new quarterly report–which uses the […]