Wiley reported second quarter sales for the period ended October 31, with sales of $491 million, compared to $466.2 million last year’s period, an increase of 5 percent. Excluding acquisitions and currency impact, however, revenue was flat. Adjusted EBITDA was $120.3 million, increased from $110 million, or 7 percent. Significantly, the company reinstated guidance for fiscal year 2021 (after suspending it due to the pandemic), now forecasting low-single digit growth overall for the year, with a mid-single digit decline in Academic & Professional Learning. The return of guidance and expectations of growth along with outperforming analysts for the quarter led […]
Publishers
Corporate: Netflix Settles with Chooseco, and More
Chooseco’s lawsuit against Netflix over their interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch has been settled, as the parties informed US District Court Judge William Sessions III on Monday at a status conference. The terms remain confidential, but “the parties did tell the judge of one slightly unusual condition — the judge’s Feb. 2020 opinion denying Netflix’s dismissal motion would have to be vacated.” The judge agreed, and thus “chose to pretend he never questioned whether Netflix’s film was explicitly misleading,” as THR puts it. In February, Judge Sessions had found that the existing facts were insufficient to support dismissal. In particular, he […]
People, Etc.
Kelsey Nolan has joined Ze Books and Unnamed Press as a publicity and marketing manager. She previously worked at the Los Angeles Times as the events programming manager. Cindy Kim has been promoted to associate editor for Little Simon. Andree Abecassis, 81, died November 4 at home in Berkeley, CA, following a brief struggle with cancer. For many years she worked at Ann Elmo Agency, founded by two of her aunts, and recently she had started working with Heyday Books. Best of 2020 The New York Public Library released their Best Books package, which includes top 10s for adults, poetry, […]
Briefs: New Books From Franzen and Bridges, Chronicle Expands In Games and Toys
Forthcoming FSG will publish a new novel by Jonathan Franzen, titled CROSSROADS, the first in his trilogy, A Key to All Mythologies, in October 2021. The publisher writes that the novel is “the beginning of a story that encompasses all the ‘mythologies’—the political, religious, and intellectual crosscurrents—that have animated and troubled American life in recent decades.” FSG president Jonathan Galassi said, “Franzen has been universally recognized as the leading novelist of his generation, an inheritor of Steinbeck and Faulkner. He has been telling us the inner history of contemporary America in novel after novel, from The Twenty-Seventh City to The Corrections to Freedom, culminating now […]
Bertelsmann Has Only Small Third Quarter Decline
Bertelsmann issued its characteristically brief third quarter trading report, noting “slight organic revenues growth of 1.6 percent,” with book publishing called out as among the “particularly robust” businesses in their portfolio. Companywide, third quarter sales were approximately €4.15 billion, down somewhat from €4.19 billion a year ago, but a much smaller decline than the 8.9 percent drop in the first six months. For the nine-month period, sales of €12 billion are down €800 million compared a year ago. Said ceo Thomas Rabe, “The economic repercussions of the global Corona pandemic continue to be felt. But we have managed to further […]
Storytel Outperforms Its Own Forecasts
Swedish audiobook subscription service Storytel announced earnings for the third quarter ended September 30, with net sales of SEK609 million ($70.6 million), up from SEK491 million in last year’s period. Streaming sales were SEK490 million, up from SEK 399 million, or 23 percent. The company averaged 1.36 million paying subscribers in the quarter, up 34 percent from 1.014 million. Both streaming sales and subscribers exceeded the company’s forecasts for the quarter. The company also announced positive EBITDA for the first ime, of SEK7 million, but cautions that it was due to an accounting change and won’t be a trend: “since […]