One week after issuing third quarter results, Scholastic issued a statement saying that the company needed to revise its earnings report after they were notified that the Connecticut Supreme Court “had reversed an earlier trial court decision and found that Scholastic Book Clubs was liable for sales taxes relating to the operation of its school book clubs business in Connecticut.” The Hartford Courant reported that the unanimous ruling, issued on March 19, said Scholastic “owes $3.2 million plus interest and penalties going back to 1995 to the state,” based on the Book Clubs division having enough of a presence in […]
Publishers
Hunger Games Sales Drive Big Sales Gain At Scholastic
Led by strong sales of The Hunger Games trilogy, Scholastic reported sharply higher sales for the third quarter of $467 million, up 22 percent from a year ago, and a much smaller seasonal loss of $3.2 million, or 10 cents per share, compared to 81 cents a share (or $25.1 million) a year ago. The publisher’s stock jumped over 20 percent (or more than $7 a share) in early trading on Thursday on the improved results and increased full-year guidance. If sustained, it will be the highest Scholastic’s shares have traded since 2002. Besides Hunger Games, for which “sales of […]
People: LA Office for Janklow & Nesbit, and More
Janklow & Nesbit Associates is opening their own Los Angeles office to extend their services in the film, television and digital communities. The agency says the move will allow it “to build on its existing relationships and expand its reach enormously in the service of its clients and their material.” Carlo Martinelli and Amanda Schweitzer comprise the new LA Team. Martinelli was at Vuguru, Michael Eisner’s online content company, after working for 10 years at Bona Fide Productions. Schweitzer has been at Millar Gough Ink and before that worked for Hugh Jackman’s Seed Productions. Luke Janklow says in the announcement […]
Sales and Earnings Rise At Wiley As Professional/Trade Falls
Sales at Wiley rose 1 percent to $451 million in their fiscal third quarter and adjusted earnings rose 8 percent to 91 cents a share (total earnings of $61 million rose more, due to some special tax benefits, and last year’s Borders writedown). In the professional/trade division, sales fell 6 percent to $108 million. The company blamed “the loss of comparable sales from the prior year to Borders through December, a weak global economy, and soft retail sales.” Direct contribution to profit dropped 7 percent to $28 million, “reflecting lower revenue partially mitigated by cost saving initiatives.” eBook sales almost […]
Like Others, Harlequin Sees Sales Soften and Margins Hold Up
Canada’s Torstar reported fourth-quarter and fiscal year results Wednesday, and the performance of Harlequin fits the general pattern of other publicly-reported trade publishers: sales were down a little, and operating earnings rose. This is what the digital transition looks like. For the full year, digital comprised 15.5 of revenues of $459 million CA (down 2 percent from $468 million the previous year). In the fourth quarter alone, digital accounted for 17.7 percent of worldwide sales of $118 million, down $2 million. Digital sales added $7 million in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago, while retail print sales declined […]
Per the Trend, Penguin Sales Are Roughly Flat As Profits Rise
Pearson reported full-year results Monday, in line with the “trading preview” offered in January, and Penguin’s results were consistent with the recent trendline for successful trade houses: Sales of 1.045 billion pounds were up slightly on an adjusted basis (and down slightly, by 8 million pounds, on a topline basis, due to very modest strengthening in the pound versus the dollar), while margins rose to another new record: 111 million pounds, up 5 percent overall and 8 percent on an underlying basis. That leaves them with a margin for the year of a little under 11 percent, similar to that just reported […]