At Little, Brown Children’s, Alvina Ling has been promoted to vp, editor-in-chief, overseeing the publishing program (excluding licensing). Pam Gruber moves up to senior editor; and Allison Moore is now associate editor. Jennifer McClelland-Smith will join group as marketing coordinator on November 10. She was most recently an administrative assistant temp for HBG’s international sales department. Morgan Doremus has joined Sourcebooks as publicity & marketing manager, Sourcebooks Casablanca. Previously she was marketing manager at Hachette’s Forever imprint. Veterans Maha Khalil and Rodger Weinfeld will join Skyhorse Publishing, as part of the publisher’s “strategic restructuring plan to build teams with expertise to support the overall growth and continued success […]
Publishers
Pearson “On Track,” and PRH “Performed Well”
Pearson released a brief third quarter trading update (free of actual numbers, in the European style), showing sales for the first nine months up 1 percent at constant exchange rates and flat on an underlying basis, while declining on real terms because the pound was strong against the dollar earlier in the year. (Since the close of the third quarter the pound has fallen another 2 percent against the dollar.) Those results are just slightly below where they stood in the more robust half-year report. Chief executive John Fallon says in the release: “We are reiterating our guidance for this […]
Bloomsbury Declines In First Half on Lower Adult Trade Sales
Bloomsbury reported weak sales and earnings for the first half of 2014, with revenues down 5 percent (or £2.6 million) to £46.6 million, and pre-tax profit down 26% (or £.6 million) to £1.7 million. The company blamed the comparison to an “exceptional” first half last year on the release of Khaled Hosseini’s And the Mountains Echoed, and said their sales will be “significantly second half weighted.” At the same time, however, the company tried to persuade investors to get excited about the new trilogy of Harry Potter movies due in 2016 through 2020 to balance out the current declines. All […]
Briefs: Bloomsbury Considered Possible Osprey Buyer; Canongate 2013 Results; and More
On the heels of the Osprey Group selling off Angry Robot, Watkins, and Nourish earlier this month to entrepreneur Etan Ilfeld, the remaining divisions are still potentially up for sale, with Bloomsbury considered to be the most likely buyer, the Bookseller reports. They say the current speculation is that “both Bloomsbury and Hachette were in the running to acquire [Osprey]” but that Bloomsbury is the front-runner. That said, “neither Bloomsbury, Sullivan, Osprey chairman Robin Black nor Alcuin Capital would respond to requests for details of the sale.” Canongate reported strong results for 2013, with full-year sales at £10.4 million, up 7.8 percent […]
Sales Rise, But So Does the Seasonal Loss At Scholastic
In Scholastic’s fiscal first quarter, ending August 31, sales rose $7.5 million, up less than 3 percent at $284 million, but their seasonal loss rose more — increasing by the same amount, at $53.4 million, and 16 percent higher than the loss a year ago. (The company generally has a loss in the first quarter, since schools are not in session.) At $1.05 per share, that loss was significantly more than anticipated by analysts, who were expecting a loss of 84 cents a share. But the higher loss did not change the company’s guidance for the full fiscal year. The […]
Wiley Q1 Results Up, But Trade Book Sales Decline
Wiley reported first quarter 2015 results of $438 million, up 4 percent on an “adjusted” basis. Net income of $33.5 million was up 9 percent on a currency-neutral basis, but virtually flat in real terms. The professional development segment, where Wiley’s trade business remains, rose $8 million to $92 million for the quarter, but the gains all came from the recent acquisitions of CrossKnowledge and Profiles International. Revenue was down 3 percent without those acquisitions. Print book sales fell 2 percent to $56 million in this segment, and ebooks actually declined more, down 11 percent to $10.5 million. declined 3 percent for the […]