Publishers

Barnes & Noble Education reported results for their big fiscal second quarter ending October 29, usually their biggest sales period following the opening of schools, with revenues of $617 million, down 1.6 percent from $627 million last year, and still well below pre-pandemic levels ($772 million in 2019 and $815 million in 2018). That’s well short of analysts’ expectations of $675 million in sales. Net income was $22 million, compared to $22.5 million in the same period in 2021, and follows one of their biggest losses ever in the first quarter, when the company was down ($52.7 million), and puts […]

The effect of Amazon’s much talked-about “reset of its [book] inventory levels and rightsizing of its warehouse footprint” is front and center in News Corp.’s fiscal first quarter account of HarperCollins’ performance, and the impact is clear. Sales at Harper fell $59 million in period, down 11 percent, to $487 million. The changes at Amazon “resulted in lower order volume and higher returns, despite consumer sales data remaining consistent with prior quarters.” Foreign exchange, due to the strong dollar, cost the company $22 million in the quarter as well. Backlist sales comprised about 65 percent of sales in the quarter, […]

After a brief preliminary report a month ago, Storytel released their full third quarter earnings report on Thursday. As announced in October, sales were up 27 percent to SEK742 million ($70.4 million). Newly reported today, earnings were SEK59.2 million, with “positive cash flow” and a positive EBITDA margin of 7.3 percent, “driven by the strategic shift to focus on profitable growth, the acquisition of Audiobooks.com as well as related restructuring of the organization.” CEO Johannes Larcher underscores that, “Refocusing the company on our home markets in the Nordics and a limited number of other priority markets, with a clear focus […]

Paramount Global reported third quarter results on Tuesday, and one of the company’s best-performing divisions was Simon & Schuster, covered only briefly as a discontinued operation. The publisher recorded sales of $353 million, up 10 percent from $321 million a year ago (and comped against $279 million in 2020, $217 million in 2019, and $240 million in 2018). Operating income was flat, at $93 million, “due to higher costs across the entire supply chain (such as paper, production, freight, and distribution).” The company experienced some negative effect from currency exchange as well due to the strong dollar, though they do […]

Lagardere released earnings results for the third quarter ended September 30, with publishing sales of €780 million, up 3.6 percent over the same period last year on a like-for-like basis (and €84 million higher overall). That topline result was driven primarily by acquisitions — €90 million from the addition of Workman Publishing and Paperblanks — and a substantial €66 million bonus from foreign exchange, €55 million of which comes from the strong US dollar. Another contributing factor was Colleen Hoover’s VERITY, which the company publishes in both the US and UK. In the US, sales were up 4.7 percent overall. […]

Bloomsbury released a trading update for the first six months of the fiscal year, ended August 31, reporting sales of £123 million (up 22 percent from last year on a topline basis, and 12 percent higher on an organic basis, leaving aside recent acquisitions). Profits before tax and highlighted items were £15.9 million, up 23 percent. In a release, CEO Nigel Newton said these are the highest-ever sales and profits in the first half. “These results demonstrate the strength and resilience of our strategy of publishing for both the consumer and academic markets, our growth of digital revenues and our […]