Sales at Scholastic fell $24.7 million or 8 percent, at $290.9 million for their fiscal first quarter, and the operating loss (before interest and taxes) was $46.8 million, 33 percent higher than a year ago. In their children’s book and publishing division, sales of $72.8 million were down 3.4 percent, with an operating loss of $51.6 million. But Scholastic says trade sales rose 9 percent, thanks in part to Suzanne Collins, while expenses reflected “the planned increase in spending on digital initiatives.” The company says Scholastic Education revenue suffered from comparisons to last year, when they “benefited significantly from the […]
Publishers
Sales and Profits Rise at Wiley, Though “Consumer” Books Are Weak
Wiley announced first quarter sales of $408 million, up 5 percent, including “strong growth” in the professional/trade and higher ed divisions, as operating income rose 13 percent to $63 million. Professional/trade sales of $100 million were up 11 percent overall (and 10 percent in the US), with contribution to profit of $22 million, due to “top line growth, product mix, and higher-margin eBook sales, partially offset by increased employment costs.” As a category, however, “consumer” books were the weakest part of the portfolio, falling 7 percent. Wiley says trade/professional ebooks doubled in the quarter to “nearly $4 million.” They now […]
Sales and Profits Rebound At Random House
Random House reported sales for the first half of the year of 791 million euros, up 57 million euros (or almost 8 percent) from a year ago, as operating EBIT doubled to a still-modest margin of 40 million euros. CEO Markus Dohle writes that “our performance was led by the US division, which combined bestseller dominance with lower physical returns.” Stieg Larsson’s sales of 6.5 million copies in the US and Germany were a “substantial” factor in the improved results. Dohle also points to the company’s “robust digital-publishing momentum.” He says that within the fiscal year, worldwide digital sales will […]
Lagardere Publishing Sales Hold Up As Profits Slide
Lagardere Publishing reported “only a limited fall in net sales” in the first half of the year, down just 4 million euros compared to a year ago at 542 million euros, mostly due to comparisons against “exceptional” Stephenie Meyer sales last year. As for income, they only report recurring EBIT twice a year, which was 101 million euros, compared to 112 million euros a year ago. The company did warn that investors should expect “a sharper drop” in earnings in the second half of the year, both because of lower Meyer sales and a “less favorable than expected outlook” for […]
Bloomsbury Does Better with Publishing than Investments
Sales at Bloomsbury rose 4.5 percent in the first half of the year, to 36.8 million pounds, though pre-tax profit fell by a little more than half, at 949,000 pounds. Profits on the publishing side fell by 23 percent, mostly due to the inclusion of the new Bloomsbury Professional unit (based on their acquisition of law and tax publisher Tottel), “which is typically loss making in the first half of the year.” Investment income on the mountain of residual Harry Potter cash declined much more sharply, down from 842,000 pounds to 180,000 pounds, reaffirming that the company is much better […]
Sales Rise at Harper As Profits Lag
HarperCollins has joined Simon & Schuster and Penguin in reporting increased sales for their most recent quarter, ending June 30, at $302 million, up over 8 percent from $278 million a year ago. Profits are still lagging, however, with an operating loss of $1 million–matching the loss from this time a year ago (though they were up $3 million prior to depreciation and amortization). For the full fiscal year, Harper recorded sales of $1.269 billion, recovering 11 percent after a poor fiscal 2009, with operating income of $88 million–hardly a stellar performance, but much improved from just $17 million in […]