Scholastic reported second quarter earnings, with sales of $597.2 million, down from $604.7 million in last year’s Q2 (or 1 percent). Trade sales remained strong, though, at $103.6 million, up from $96 million (or 8 percent). Operating income was up, to $105 million, from $98 million one year ago (or 7 percent). Trade saw strong frontlist sales, from books including Raina Telgemeier’s Guts, Alan Gratz’s Allies, Maggie Stiefvater’s Call Down the Hawk, The Dinky Donkey, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The Illustrated Edition, but also included the licensing revenue from Clifford, the animated programming now on Amazon […]
Publishers
Wiley Earnings Reflect Continued Educational Publishing Decline
Wiley reported Q2 earnings, with total sales for the quarter of $466.2 million, up from $448.6 million — which includes increased sales scope from the zyBooks and Knewton acquisitions. Operating income was $63.4 million, up from $57.5 million. Educational publishing sales were $101.7 million, down from $107.5 million, a decline of 5 percent, despite the boost from the recent acquisitions. Professional learning sales were $76 million, down from from $82.2 million, or 8 percent. It’s unclear exactly how much traditional book publishing declined, however, since the company’s recent decision to combine books with its corporate training business, in a single […]
Q3 Sales and Income Down at McGraw-Hill, Despite Digital Growth
McGraw-Hill reported earnings for the period ending September 30, with sales of $542.6 million, down from $552.1 million. Net income also fell slightly, down $2.2 million to $53.4 million. Meanwhile, the company’s preferred, non-GAAP measure of profit, adjusted EBITDA, was up slightly, to $371.7 million from $368.2 million. Higher ed sales of $189 million were down $12 million, while K-12 sales of $252 million rose by $11 million compared to a year ago. Despite lackluster overall results, the company reported strong sales growth for its “Inclusive Access” program and other digital offerings (entirely offset, nonetheless, by contraction in print sales […]
Simon & Schuster Sales Down While Profit Gains Continue
Sales at Simon & Schuster dropped in the third quarter of 2019 to $217 million, down $23 million from a year ago (or 9.6 percent). Operating income rose again despite the lower sales, up $1 million to $52 million — marking the 19th consecutive quarter of profit growth — primarily due to “lower production costs from the mix of titles.” In the press release, the company said the sales decline was mainly driven by lower print book sales, due to the comparison to last year’s record-breaking release of Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward. (Two years ago […]
Soft Quarter at Harper and A Big Loss at News Corp.
News Corp. reported fiscal first quarter sales on Thursday afternoon, with a soft quarter at HarperCollins. Sales of $405 million were down $13 million, or 3 percent, with foreign exchange costing $5 million in the period. EBITDA fell much further, down to $49 million, from $68 million a year ago (which had been a time of unusually “robust profit growth”), blamed on “the different mix of titles.” Digital sales fell 5 percent in the period, comprising 22 percent of “consumer revenues” (which were $387 million). The results were worse for parent company News Corp., where sales fell 7 percent to $2.34 […]
Lagardere Publishing Gains In France, Just Below Flat In US and UK
Lagardere reported third quarter results November 7, with book publishing sales of €663 million, up from €607 million. The gains included €9 million from the strengthening US dollar and €7 million from the recent Gigamic and Short Books acquisitions, but results were driven mostly by a 12.2 percent gain at the big French publishing division, which enjoyed “a sharp uptick in education” on high school curriculum reform and “robust momentum for mobile games.” At HBG USA sales were just below flat, down 0.3 percent, held back by the Nashville division and a weaker comp at Perseus, where sales of Jen […]