Publishers

With Bertelsmann’s half-year report from this morning, we now have all of the major public reporting for trade publishing companies for the first six months of the year (even though the AAP has not gotten past February so far). Below is a summary view, though for nearly every company we could append a number of special notes. The overall trend shows modest declines in revenues, as rising print sales in the US — up 5.7 percent in units, or 16.4 million books, in outlets measured by Nielsen Bookscan — could not make up for declining ebook sales. Currency exchange and M&A […]

Bertelsmann reported results for the first half of 2016 on Wednesday morning, with book publisher Penguin Random House recording sales of €1.516 billion (down €181 million, or 10.7 percent, from a year ago), including the wholly-owned RH Germany. EBITDA fell in line with sales, down 10.6 percent to €185 million (or €22 million lower than the same period a year ago.) Those declines came despite persistent strength in the US dollar, which drove the division’s big topline gains in 2015. The average US dollar exchange rate for the first half was 1.1161, compared to 1.1152 a year ago. The British pound did slide […]

The Quarto Group also reported results for the first half of 2016, with acquisitions helping to boost sales, at $73.3 million up from $67.7 million a year ago. The biggest, and most profitable, growth came from Quarto USA, where sales gained almost $4 million to $31.7 million for the period, with an adjusted operating profit of $2.5 million. The US group was helped by February’s acquisition of Harvard Common Press’s list (for a total of $1 million), and a strong list of adult coloring books. The company does note that, “As anticipated, we are now starting to see signs of retail oversaturation with this […]

After six straight quarters of “core” declines, HarperCollins finished their fiscal year with a better fourth quarter, boosted on the topline by an extra week of results. Sales of $433 million were up 11 percent overall (or $43 million), and EBITDA improved to $50 million (compared to $33 million a year ago). But this was a 14-week reporting period, and a 53-week fiscal year; the extra week accounted for $19 million of the gain, with acquisitions (e.g. buying out international Harlequin joint venture partners) comprising another $12 million of the sales increase on an adjusted basis — leaving about $12 million in sales improvement, about 3 […]

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt reported second quarter sales on Thursday morning, reducing its guidance for the full year on “an updated expectation for its core domestic education market”: 2016 sales are now expected to range from $1.485 billion to $1.555 million (with net billings of between $1.525 billion and $1.595 billion). The small trade division had a reasonable quarter, with sales rising $1.2 million to $38.7 million, attributed to “frontlist culinary titles such as The Whole 30 , Weber’s New American Barbecue , Meathead and Ted Talks.” That was offset by “a decline in net sales of ebooks attributed to fewer movie tie-ins of bestselling ebook titles coupled […]

Joining the big wave of earnings reports was Pearson on Friday, with results for the first half of the year. Sales fell £131 million to £1.866 billion, down 7 percent overall (and down 11 percent on a currency neutral basis) — “primarily due to the expected declines in assessment revenues in the US and UK” — and income fell away, with operating profit from continuing operations of £15 million and a loss 1.3 pence per share. The latest of their continuing restructuring initiatives, given the innocuous-sound name of “simplification and change programs,” is said to be on pace, and they […]