Publishers

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 […]

Further to yesterday’s full-year earnings report, in a call with investors, executives at Lagardere explained that the company plans to cut costs in the publishing division, including halting its ambitious distribution revamp in France and rethinking title count, and hopes to grow through acquisitions, organic growth, and price increases. The company has decided to abandon its Polaris distribution and logistics program, which it began developing in 2021 for distribution in France, because “after two to three years of design and maturing the project we realized that it was probably too big and too expensive for what we needed,” Hachette Livre […]

Lagardere released financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2023, with fourth quarter publishing sales of €795 million, up 5.8 percent (or 6.1 percent on a like-for-like basis). For the year, sales of €2.809 billion were up €61 million or 2.2 percent from 2022 (up 1.9 percent like-for-like). Recurring EBIT was just below flat at €301 million (down €1 million), though that does not tell the full story, since overall profit before finance costs and tax fell significantly, at €199 million, down from €291 million a year ago. The year’s sales gains were due primarily to a €50 […]

Bloomsbury released a brief trading update for the year ending February 29, further expecting sales to be “significantly ahead” of market expectations that were revised upwards in December to £291.4 million and profit before taxation and highlighted items of £37.2 million. The success is thanks to Sarah J. Maas’s HOUSE OF FLAME AND SHADOW, which hit number 1 in the US, UK, Australia, and elsewhere when it was published on January 30, as well as her 15-title backlist. As such, “Bloomsbury is investing further in fantasy writing on the newly launched Bloomsbury General list.” “I am overjoyed to report an […]

News Corp announced earnings for its second quarter ended December 31, reporting sales at HarperCollins of $550 million, up 4 percent from the previous year. In a release, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said the company “believe[s] there are strong prospects for further growth as difficult macro conditions ease in some of our markets.” The company attributed the sales increase to lower returns and an increase in digital sales, which were up 15 percent, “driven by strong market growth for downloadable audiobook sales, as well as the contribution from a new Spotify partnership.” Digital purchases made up 21 percent of […]