Quarto reported an 8 percent rise in adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to December to £7.4m from £6.9m, and a 7 percent jump in revenue to £113.8m from £106.6m. Its publishing division revenue increased 7 percent to £75.1m. Quarto cited “continued focus on developing markets, in particular Brazil and China, and improved trading in the UK and Australasia” for the revenue and profit gains. Release Hay House has become the first publisher to sign on to use Vook’s engine for creating enhanced ebooks at scale (called MotherVook). The product “converts disparate and varied file formats; combines text, video and […]
Publishers
Lagardere Improves In Fourth Quarter, Down 4 Percent (Against Big Meyer Comp)
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 […]
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 […]
Courier’s Results Slide, But Profit Forecast Is Raised On “Positive Currents”
Sales at the book publishing unit at Courier fell 7 percent in their fiscal first quarter, ending December 25, at $10.8 million, but ceo James Conway III says “there were positive currents at work” and they “look forward to a stronger spring throughout the segment.” After a long decline due to the housing recession, Creative Homeowner sales rose 7 percent, and Dover increased online sales even while declining 3 percent overall. Courier’s larger printing business also declined–but with increases in their digital printing, the company increased full-year profit expectations anyway by five cents a share. Overall, sales for the quarter […]
Pearson Raises Earnings Guidance Again, Promises “Record Results” for Penguin
Pearson issued a brief trading update ahead of February’s full report of earnings for the year, raising their profit guidance yet again, to 76 pence per share (up from 72 pence per share), which took the stock to a new high. Even with the end-of-year Borders surprise, they say that Penguin “performed strongly in our key trading season and will report record results despite tough conditions in the physical book retail market.” Overall profits of 850 million pounds are expected to be up 20 percent over last year, “fuelled by [their] consistent investment in the global learning industry, in digital […]