BBC Worldwide write down nearly £34 million (or $54 million) on the value of Lonely Planet, after paying £42 million earlier this year for the remaining 25 percent of the company outside of its control. (The BBC bought a 75 percent stake in 2007 for £89 million.) “The strength of the Australian dollar in recent years has led to challenging sales conditions for the Lonely Planet business,” said the company in a statement. “This has been compounded by declines since 2008 in key travel guide markets suffering from the impact of the global financial crisis.” The rise in the Australian […]
Publishers
Briefs: Indigo Changes Product Mix and Plans Speedier Returns; Pan Mac Earnings; and More
Starting this fall Indigo will add more shelf space for giftware, toys and lifestyle products while cutting back on space for books. And at a vendor-relations meeting last week, the chain also reportedly informed suppliers it will evaluate book sales after 45 days and return underperforming titles soon after. The change in plans has Canadian publishers worried about supply chain inefficiencies and the potential expense of having to push back publication dates to take advantage of holiday sales. Quill & Quire Pan Macmillan offers a numbers-free earnings update for the first 24 weeks of the fiscal year, ending July 8. […]
Wiley Softens At Year-End, With Strong Digital Growth
Wiley’s fourth quarter sales rose 2 percent to $445 million, with adjusted net income flat at $28.5 million. But those earnings were down a penny on a per share basis, at 46 cents a share, and declined 5 percent on a currency-neutral basis. Analysts were expecting 3 cents more per share in earnings, and $7 million more in sales than reported. A strong performance in higher education was offset by softness in Professional/Trade (P/T), which fell 3 percent to $110 million, due to “foregone sales” related to Borders’ bankruptcy. They say Borders “represented about 5 percent of projected P/T sales” […]
Earnings: Pan Macmillan Q1 Digital Sales at 8 Percent; Digital Spending Causes Q4 Earnings Drop for Indigo
Pan Macmillan said digital sales for the first quarter of 2011 made up 8 percent of total revenue, and they expect that number to rise to about 10 percent for the full fiscal year. (That puts them at the high end of UK publishers disclosing ebook sales so far.) Over the same period, the publisher’s sales of print books have also shown “double-digit sales growth.” The Bookseller In contrast, in a statement timed with their annual meeting, Quarto said US ebook sales of their illustrated books are heading towards a projected 2 percent of sales. They add, “there is talk […]
Digital Accelerates At Bloomsbury, Which Announces Digital Drama Library with Faber
Bloomsbury, which is readjusting its fiscal year, reported results for the 14 months ending February 28. Since the publisher already disclosed 12-month results recently, we’ll only delve into the highlights and what’s new. Their ebook sales continue to accelerate. They were £1.5 million for all of 2010, and have now registered £1.1 million for the first two months of 2011. Chief executive Nigel Newton says in the release, “This is an exciting time for Bloomsbury: demand for digital delivery, including e-books, is increasing significantly; it will change the publishing business model creating one worldwide market. The recent organisation change is […]
Hastings Will Start Selling E-Books as Q1 Earnings Slide
Hastings Entertainment reported a drop in net income for its first quarter, down to $400,000 (or 5 cents per share) compared to $1 million (or 11 cents per share) a year ago. Total sales declined by 3.8 percent, to $124.1 million. Overall book comps decreased 9.1 percent for the quarter; new book sales fell 8.6 percent in the period, used books sales declined 19.6 percent, and value books gained by 8.7 percent. Publishers are blamed for a “weaker slate of new book releases.” The retailer says there was a 22 percent drop in “titles for which we purchase more than 1,000 copies.” […]