News Corp reported earnings for their fiscal third quarter ended March 31, with sales at Harper Collins of $506 million, down 2 percent from the record high $515 million in the same quarter last year. The decline was due to lower physical book sales, which were partially offset by higher digital sales and lower returns. Earnings improved 2 percent, with EBITDA of $62 million, attributed to “lower manufacturing, freight and distribution costs driven by product mix” and the absence of last year’s high supply chain costs, but offset by slower sales and increased employee costs. (Remember, the Harper union was […]
Publishers
Bertelsmann Touts Organic Growth As Overall Sales Fall
Bertelsmann made a brief announcement of financial results for the first quarter, reporting overall sales of €4.3 billion ($4.67 billion), down 9 percent due to the company’s sale of their stake in Majorel. Organic growth was 3.6 percent. “Bertelsmann has gotten off to a good start in fiscal 2024, and is once again experiencing stronger growth from within,” chair and CEO Thomas Rabe said in a release. “We confirm our forecast for the current year.” At Penguin Random House—which was not among the businesses listed as the largest contributors in the quarter—top titles included Ashley Elston’s FIRST LIE WINS, which […]
Higher Ed Slides at Pearson, Still Forecast to Grow In Second Half
Pearson released a brief first quarter “trading update” in conjunction with the company’s annual meeting. Higher education sales fell 4 percent in the period, “in line with our phasing guidance.” The company advises, “We are pleased with the engagement we are seeing from both students and faculty on our AI study tools. We remain on-track to add this AI feature to more than 40 new titles for the key fall sales season.” This time last year, higher ed sales were down 5 percent. For all of 2023, higher education sales of £855 million were down 3 percent on an underlying […]
Lagardere Publishing Shows Slight Gain, Improvement in the US
Sales inched up at Lagardere Publishing in the first quarter, rising €6 million to €576 million, “thanks in particular to the success of bestsellers in the United Kingdom and the United States.” US sales rose 3.4 percent — after a tough performance a year ago — helped by digital audio, science fiction sales at Orbit, and Liz Cheney’s Oath and Honor. In the UK, where they publish Rebecca Yarros, sales gained 4.8 percent. In France, however, sales dropped 4.8 percent.
PRH Grows on Acquisitions, SPARE
Bertelsmann announced full year results for 2023, with sales at Penguin Random House of €4.532 billion, up 7.3 percent from €4.223 billion last year. The company attributed the sales increase to acquisitions (taking a majority stake in Sourcebooks and the acquisition of Callisto Media’s publishing assets) as well as strong sales of bestsellers, particularly SPARE. Operating EBITDA was €664 million, compared to €666 million in 2022. “Profits were dampened by negative exchange rate effects, inflation-related cost increases and a positive effect in the previous year from the sale of a building,” the company said in a release. “Special items” accounted […]
Strong Backlist Sales Can’t Offset Scholastic’s Seasonal Losses
Scholastic announced results for the fiscal third quarter ended February 29, with sales of $323.7 million, nearly even with $324.9 million a year ago. “Lower U.S. Book Clubs revenues of approximately $14.4 million related to the strategic repositioning of the business, were offset by strong trade publishing revenues in the U.S., Canada and the UK, which benefited from the sales of popular book series titles,” the company said in a release. Operating loss increased 26 percent to $(34.9) million, while adjusted EBITDA decreased 33 percent to (7.2) million. In Children’s Book Publishing and Distribution, the good news was that consolidated […]