Scholastic reported results for its fiscal 2019 first quarter ending August 31, 2018 — their lightest quarter since school is not in session — showing gains in both book publishing and distribution and education. Revenues totaled $218.4 million, up 15 percent compared to $189.2 million in the first quarter of 2018. The net loss improved slightly—$61.3 million, compared to $63.7 million in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA for the first fiscal quarter of 2019 was a loss of $64.5 million, compared to a loss of $78.1 million in the first quarter of 2018. Scholastic’s shares, up 6.9% so far […]
Publishers
Quarto Has Better Sales, Still with Big Loss; Bertelsmann to Buy OnCourse Learning
Quarto reported half-year results, with sales showing some improvement, as revenues rose $6 million to $56.2 million. Some of that gain reflects a shift in the “seasonal split of co-edition revenues, with a higher percentage than normal of expected full-year revenues achieved in the first half.” Their operating loss of ($7 million) was slightly improved from last year’s ($7.6 million), though the after tax loss of ($6.7 million) was higher than last year’s ($5.2 million), and is a poor result by any objective measure. The company’s lightly-traded stock is headed towards a new all-time low following the news. Though not […]
Wiley Reports Modest Q1 Decline in Overall Publishing
Wiley reported results for the first fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2018, with GAAP revenue of $411 million, a 1 percent decline versus the prior year, and operating income of $36 million, a $24 million increase from a year ago, when the company had taken a restructuring charge. Overall publishing sales were slightly lower, continuing the trend from last year. STM and professional publishing sales of $66 million were up 3 percent from $63.6 a year ago. Those gains were offset by a decline in educational publishing sales, down 16% to $38.2 million. “First quarter performance was consistent with our […]
Sales Slide at Penguin Random House On Softer Dollar and More
Bertelsmann reported results for the first half of the year on Thursday, with sales at Penguin Random House+ (the PRH joint venture, plus the separate Random House Germany) registering €1.482 billion, down €48 million (or 3.1 percent) overall from a year ago. Operating EBITDA fell further, to €171 million, down 35 million (or 17 percent). The company blamed “high negative exchange rate effects – in particular from the US dollar…among other factors” for the declines. In the investor call, cfo Bernd Hirsch said that “a little bit more than 50 percent” of the drop in EBITDA was due to foreign […]
New Accounting Rules Will Likely Lift Penguin Random House’s Sales: It’s A Long Story
On Thursday Penguin Random House’s parent company Bertelsmann will be the last of the big companies to report financial results through June 30, and when that happens, there will be something different about PRH’s results. The company will use a different accounting method for their ebook sales, making their overall sales for the past six months unlike previous PRH reports. That will also make their sales report unlike those of all the other publishers that we have reported so far this earnings season. That difference is that for many (but not all) ebook sales, PRH will start counting the full consumer […]
Harper Has Big Gains In Sales, Profits
News Corp reported fourth quarter results on Thursday, with HarperCollins turning in a strong quarter, recording sales of $490 — up $83 million from the same period a year ago. Along with the higher sales, book publishing EBITDA was much higher too, at $71 million, compared to $39 million a year ago. One big, profitable boost was $28 million of revenue from the sublicensing agreement for J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which Amazon Studios acquired global television rights. That’s the “advance” for the rights, and the primary expected cash benefit from the agreement for the foreseeable […]