Publishers

Pearson released results for the six-months ending June 30 on Friday morning, with COVID-related impact weighing heavily on their sales. The company reported sales of £1.49 billion, down from £1.83 billion last year, a decline of 19 percent largely due to test center and school closures affecting its global assessment and international segments. North American courseware, including US higher ed, declined 14 percent, though they attributed it to the longer-term collapse in sales and conversion to lower-priced digital products (“due to the continuation of trends seen in 2019”), citing only “a modest impact from the closure of campus-based bookstores.” Adjusted […]

Scholastic reported fourth quarter and full-year results for the period ending May 31 on Thursday afternoon. As expected, school closures due to coronavirus weighed heavily on their performance for the quarter, with overall sales of $284 million, down 40 percent compared to $471 million last year. Trade sales, however, surged to $80.4 million from $55.4 million last year — led by the big release of Suzanne Collins’ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, plus continuing sales for Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man books, and Raina Telgemeier’s Guts, but also boosted in general by the early lockdown surge in educational books for […]

McGraw Hill issued its first annual report under its new fiscal calendar, with the year ending March 31, 2020, along with its fourth quarter results. Fourth quarter billings were flat, at $241 million, and net sales were $279 million with no comparison figure available. COVID-19 had clear negative impact on the quarter: International billings were dragged down $9 million, or 24 percent; higher ed and K-12 were also impacted, due to school closures. Billings were still flat, however, because higher education sales have been shifting from Q3 to Q4. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $(39) million, from $(56) million, […]

Wiley announced fiscal fourth-quarter sales for the period ending April 30 of $475 million, compared to $491 million in the same period a year ago — a 3 percent decline, or 6 percent when acquisitions and $7 million in foreign exchange impact are taken into account. They incurred a big net loss of ($158) million, compared to net income of $63 million last year. As expected given global school and office shutdowns, education publishing was down 12 percent, to $84 million from $95 million, and professional learning declined 23 percent, to $66 million. The net loss reflects approximately $110 million […]

Bloomsbury reported results for the full year ending February 29, with flat sales of £162.8 million, and pre-tax earnings of £13.2 million, up from £12 million a year ago. One-time charges of £2.5 million included amortization of acquired intangible assets of £1.7 million, acquisitions-related costs of £0.6 million, and coronavirus-related costs of £0.2 million. Adult trade sales were billed as “strong,” with sales of £37.4 million, up from £33.5 million last year, and profit before tax and charges of £1.6 million, up from £0.9 million. Children’s trade declined, however, for the second year running. Sales were £59.4 million, down from […]

Swedish ebook and audio streaming platform Storytel reported results for the first quarter of 2020, with net sales of SEK 513.2 million ($52.7 million), up 33.5 percent from SEK 385 million. (Announced this quarter, total sales accounting will now include the capitalization of developing its digital catalog, which was formerly reported as an expense and totaled SEK 46.8 million, not reflected above.) The EBITDA loss of SEK (31.1 million) was an improvement from SEK (67.9 million). To continue fueling its growth, the company completed a directed share issue February 20 that raised SEK 948 million before fees “and provided the […]