Lagardere reported fourth quarter sales on Tuesday, with publishing sales of €537 million down 5.5 percent from€569 million a year ago — and declining further, 8.7 percent, on a like-for-like basis. (Sales fell even with a foreign exchange gain of €14 million.) The company blamed “an unfavorable comparison effect” to a strong fourth quarter in 2013, though it’s clear that Lagardere Publishing sales were soft for the entire year. Full-year sales registered €2.004 million, down 3 percent from €2.066 million a year ago — a 3 percent topline decline, and a 4.5 percent like-for-like decline. That is the lowest sales […]
Publishers
Harper Has Flat Quarter Before Harlequin Gain
HarperCollins’ parent company News Corp. reported second quarter fiscal year sales for the period ending December 31 after the close of the market on Thursday. On an adjusted basis, before adding in the recently-acquired Harlequin, Harper’s sales were flat at $392 million, with EBITDA down 4 percent to $65 million — but pretty much a win for the publisher since it compares to the period a year ago when Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy was taking off. The company cites “strong performances in children’s and general books resulting from higher backlist sales during the holiday season, which largely offset the lower revenues […]
Rowman & Littlefield Grows On Acquisitions
Driven by the purchase of multiple Globe Pequot Press imprints last May and the Alban Institute’s book business in January, Rowman & Littlefield says that book and journal sales rose to $60.3 million in 2014, up from $51 million the year before. Client sales through their distribution businesses NBN and NBN International were almost flat at $78 million, down $1 million. R&L says digital products comprised 11.5 percent of publishing sales.
Pearson Sees Profit Rising in 2015; WH Smith High Street Sales Continue Falling
In a short trading update, Pearson told investors that 2014 results should be in line with their previous guidance, yielding earnings per share of approximately £720m (of 66 pence a share). Their preliminary forecast for 2015 has earnings rising to between 75 and 80 pence per share. Chief executive John Fallon says in the release, “Despite continuing challenging market conditions, overall we had a good competitive performance in 2014 and expect to report results in line with the guidance we gave at the start of the year. We enter 2015 a simpler, leaner, more cash generative business, well set for long-term […]
Briefs
Following Macmillan ceo John Sargent’s indication that they will, with some reluctance, “test subscription in the coming weeks,” Oyster announced that their collection now includes over 1,000 titles published by Bloomsbury. Harper UK has disclosed their annual results for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014. Sales fell to £179 million, down £11 million from the prior year, while profits rebounded from terrible to just low, with pre-tax earnings of £7.2 million (still, much better than £2.8 million the year before). The company said profits were held down by £3.5 million related to their planned relocation to new offices in 2015. The Bookseller […]
School Book Clubs Help Lift Second Quarter Sales At Scholastic
Scholastic reported second quarter sales of $666 million, up 7 percent (or $43 million) from a year ago, “largely driven by strong sales in children’s books, especially in the company’s school-based distribution channels, and continued growth in classroom books and magazines.” All of the growth and more came from the children’s book publishing and distribution division, which rose $50.5 million to $403 million. Trade sales were up $3.1 million to $55.6 million, helped by the Minecraft series. School Book Club sales rose $32.2 million, or 33 percent, to $129.6 million. “Lower investment in Storia” helped children’s book publishing profits. The […]