Publishers

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 […]

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 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 […]

On the heels of announcing significant layoffs and news of improved sales and billings for the company overall, HMH reported full results for Q3. In its trade, or Books & Media business, both sales and EBITDA were down for the quarter, largely due to $16 million received a year ago from re-licensing some George Orwell titles for paperback. Books & Media sales for the quarter were $48.1 million, down from $66.6 million in 2018, with segment adjusted EBITDA of $8.3 million, down from $15.5 million. Net income was $4.9 million, versus $12.1 a year ago. Though the company expects a […]

Bloomsbury reported earnings for the six months ending August 31, with children’s trade dragging down sales and earnings, accompanied by good results in the smaller academic and professional publishing business. Overall, sales were £71.3 million, down from £75.3 million, and profit before taxes and charges was £2.5 million, down from £2.9 million last year. Trade sales were £41.5 million, down from £47 million last year’s period. Pre-tax profit was £640,000, down from £3.1 million. The declines came primarily from children’s books, with sales of £25.3 million, down almost 19 percent from £31.1 million a year ago, and pre-tax profit of […]

Bonnier Books’ parent company Bonnier released 8-month earnings for the period of January to August 2019, with overall sales for Bonnier of SEK 17.2 billion, up from SEK 16.1 billion last year’s period. (They report in 8-month and 4-month installments.) Bonnier Books sales were near flat at SEK 3.633 billion ($375 million), down from 3.636 billion a year ago. Sales are down more noticeably for the last 12 months, at 6.33 billion, versus 6.436 billion a year ago. Meanwhile, the EBITA loss improved, to SEK (111 million) from (215 million). Adlibris sales were also down, to SEK 1.325 billion from […]