Publishers

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.

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 […]

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 […]

Wiley announced earnings for the fiscal third quarter ended January 31, reporting sales of $461 million, down 6 percent from the previous year, due to divesting some businesses, and declines in others that were held for sale. The operating loss improved to $(46.4) million, compared to $(67.1) million last year, still impacted by an $82 million impairment charge for the Wiley Edge business that is being sold and another $15 million in restructuring charges. But the net loss of $(112.3 million) was higher, compared to $(77.5 million), due to a $52 million loss on the sale of a business and […]

Pearson released their full results for 2023, reporting sales of £3.67 billion, down 4.3 percent from £3.84 billion in 2022, “reflecting business performance, portfolio changes and currency movements.” Operating profit was £498 million, up from £271 million, due to “increased trading profits” and the cost savings from restructuring, and was “partially offset by a net loss related to acquisitions and disposals.” This sheds light on the company’s trading update issued in January, which noted that sales were up 5 percent—for select divisions, excluding virtual learning and those under strategic review. Higher Education continued to fall, in line with expectations, down […]

There is a small addition to Simon & Schuster’s known results before going private late last year, following Paramount Global’s full-year earnings filing on Wednesday. For 30 days of October, Paramount indicates, S&S had sales of $101 million, and operating income of $18 million. That puts their publicly-released results for 10 months at sales of $958 million and operating income of $227 million. For the first three full quarters of the year, sales had been running just $6 million below their record year in 2022. For all of 2022, sales had reached $1.177 billion, up 18.5 percent, and operating income hit […]