McGraw Hill announced results for the second quarter ended September 30, reporting sales of $669 million, down 3 percent–though this is the company’s second-highest second quarter sales in 10 years. The company attributes the decline to an “anticipated smaller K-12 market,” partially offset by gains in higher education. Adjusted EBITDA was $286 million, down from $290 million in 2024. “With market share gains and the expansion of AI-powered tools, we are advancing personalized learning at scale while investing in growth beyond our core offerings,” chair, president, and ceo Simon Allen said. “Our fiscal second quarter performance highlights how McGraw Hill […]
Publishers
Harper Collins Reports Third Quarter Declines on Baker & Taylor Closure and Orders from “Certain Customers”
Quietly topsy-turvy days in book publishing are well reflected in Harper Collins’ third quarter earnings report, released Thursday night by parent company News Corp., if you are paying attention. CEO Robert Thomson reported “an uncharacteristically weak performance in Book Publishing” in the quarter, with sales of $536 million, down $10 million from the same period a year ago. Profits fell further, at $58 million, down from $81 million last year. They took a $13 million “receivable write-off relating to the expected closure of Baker & Taylor,” CFO Lavanya Chandrashekar reported on the investor call. The unit “faced blustery winds in […]
Pearson Results Remain Flattish, But Upbeat
Pearson issued a brief third quarter trading update, reporting “underlying” sales growth of 4 percent in the period, looking forward to “stronger Q4 sales growth…given known business unit dynamics.” Higher Ed sales were down 1 percent in the quarter, “due to ongoing challenging trading conditions in mature markets.” US Higher Ed sales rose 2 percent in the quarter, helped by “sustained engagement with our AI-powered study tools, partly offset by declines in our K-12 channel. In the Higher Ed segement, the company said, “We continue to expect sales growth in 2025 to be higher than in 2024 as we […]
Lagardere Publishing Has Record Third-Quarter Sales, As HBG Moves Up in the US
Lagardere Publishing issued their brief third quarter trading update on Thursday afternoon, celebrating record third quarter sales of €811 million, up 6 percent compared to €765 million for the same period a year ago. The company reports that, “All business segments contributed to the growth effort, with General Literature enjoying very good performances in the United States and France.” The acquisition of Union Square (and 999 Games) added €15 million in the quarter, while the declining US dollar and British pound cost €19 million in negative currency effect. In the US, ceo David Shelley reports that, “HBG had a fantastic […]
Scholastic Reports Soft First Quarter
Scholastic announced results for the first quarter ended August 31–a typically softer period–with $226 million in sales, down 5 percent. The operating loss was down 4 percent to $(92.2) million, as expected, and the loss excluding one-time items improved by 4 percent to $(81.9) million. In the Children’s Book Publishing and Distribution segment, sales gained 4 percent to $109 million. Trade sales were almost flat at $73.5 million. School Reading Events sales were up 14 percent to $36 million, with $34 million in Book Fairs (up 18 percent due to the redemption of rewards at the fairs) and $1.8 million […]
Wiley Sales Dip in Q1
Wiley announced earnings for the first quarter ended July 31, with sales down 2 percent to $397 million, again due to lost revenue from their divested businesses. Operating income grew 7 percent to $31 million and income before taxes was $18 million, compared to $23 million last year. Wiley has continued to partner with AI companies, including a deal with Anthropic that was announced in July. They also said that they executed a $20 million AI licensing project with an unnamed “large tech company…on behalf of publisher partners” and now have deals with three of the world’s largest tech companies […]