Publishers

Like their Harry Potter partners in the UK Bloomsbury, Scholastic reported softer third quarter sales of $398.8 million, down from $423.6 million a year ago mostly because of lower Potter-related sales. But the company reduced their loss from continuing operations to $6.3 million, much improved from a $41.2 million loss a year ago. (The company usually incurs some loss during the third quarter.) They raised their full-year earnings guidance to the top end of the previously-provided range CEO Dick Robinson says in the release, “Successful execution and increased federal stimulus funding drove more than 30% growth in sales of educational […]

In what parent company Bertelsmann cited as a “difficult economic environment,” Random House reported 2009 fiscal year sales of  €1.723 billion, up a mere 2 million euros from last year, with flat EBIT of €137 million. The company made up ground in the second half of the year to stay even, helped by sales of 8 million copies of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol in the US and the UK and 7 million copies of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy in the US and Germany. The company says that digital is their fastest-growing segment, with e-book sales tripling during the year, […]

Full-year sales at The Quarto Group fell 5 percent to £106.6 million. Adjusted operating profit dropped 10 percent to £10.2m, though reported pretax profit doubled from last year to £3.6m.  The book publishing division had sales for the year of £70.1m, more or less flat compared to last year, and operating profit ahead by 7% at £6.7m. Their co-edition division took a bigger hit, as revenues fell 15% to £36.5m, and operating profit dropped 22% to £5m, with “much of the deterioration” blamed on Quarto’s publishing services unit in Hong Kong. Chairman Laurence Orbach, citing “decent results” borne out of […]

Hastings Entertainment reported an increase in fourth-quarter earnings, with a net income of $9.1  million or $0.94 per share, compared to $4.1 million or $.41 per share in the corresponding period one year earlier. Total revenue for the quarter climbed 5.5 percent to $176.1 million, from $166.9 million a year earlier. For the twelve-month period, net earnings also rose to $6.9 million or $0.71 per share from $4.1 million or $0.39 per share in the previous year. revenues decreased 1.4% to $531.3 million from $538.7 million last year. Comparable store revenues for books, however, dropped 0.5% for the year ending […]