The lack of a comparable book sales-wise to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – even with the success of Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn, the Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski and Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture – took an expected toll on Barnes & Noble’s second quarter earnings. Total sales for Barnes & Noble declined 2% to $1.22 billion. Store sales were off 1.6%, to $1.1 billion, while sales through Barnes & Noble.com increased 3.6% to $99.8 million. Comparable store sales fell 4.7% at the physical stores in the period. Excluding prior year sales of the Harry Potter […]
Earnings Reports
US Situation Reflects Quarto's Second Half Losses
For the six months ended June 30, International coedition and publishing group Quarto made a pretax loss of 3.1 million pounds against a 400,000 pound profit last time as revenues rose to 43.8 million pounds from 36.6 million pounds. Revenue increased by 20% to £43.8m on an adjusted basis, with underlying sales growth of 4%. Adjusted operating profit was £2.3m, growth of 33%, or 4% on an underlying basis. The group’s actual operating loss was £1.3m, compared with an operating profit in the same period last year of £1.6m. The loss came after restructuring costs of £2.7m associated with the […]
Profile Books Remains Upbeat in Face of Profit Decline
For the fiscal year ending in March 2008, Profile Books reported a turnover of £7.58m and net assets increased by 18%, down from 2007’s turnover of £9.09m and 23% net asset increase. Pre-tax profit came in at £1.03m euros and operating profits were £770,000, down more than half from 2007. The publisher cited a lack of a number one bestseller for the downturn from last year’s “exceptional” figures. Managing director Andrew Franklin said: “These are very pleasing figures. Some years we publish a runaway bestseller and it’s a fabulous bonus when we do, but even without one these results show […]
Harper Finishes with Strong Quarter
HarperCollins reported fourth quarter sales of $350 million, up nearly 18 percent from $295 million a year ago, with operating income of $28 million up a third from a year ago. In the release the company says the quarter was “led by strong sales of Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey [which has sales as tracked by Nielsen Bookscan of under 60,000 copies], Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall, an updated edition of YOU:The Owner’s Manual by Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet Oz” and bestsellers like Read All About It! by Laura and Jenna Bush–leaving unresolved the question of what actually […]
S&S Falls Short
CBS reported sales at Simon & Schuster for the second quarter of $186 million, down 7 percent from a year ago. It’s the third straight quarterly decline for the publishing unit and once again the statement says that “bestselling titles…did not match contributions from prior year titles.” OIBDA and operating income decreased 15 percent to $17 million and 19 percent to $14.6 million, respectively, with “lower revenues partially offset by lower royalty expenses.” In additional remarks the company indicated they “are also feeling, as we did the last quarter, the effects of higher freight costs,” and are seeing higher paper […]
Harlequin Turns in Better Quarter
Torstar reported second quarter earnings with sales at their Harlequin unit of $119 million (CA) up 3.5 percent from a year ago, and EBITDA of $19.8 million up 44 percent (for a margin of 16.6 percent). The company says Harlequin “is well on track to deliver solid growth for the year, albeit not at the pace of the second quarter…. After a very strong second quarter, we expect Harlequin’s growth to moderate in the second half of the year resulting in solid growth for the year as a whole. The U.S. economy could have a negative impact on Harlequin’s results, […]