Publishers

Sales fell at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the first quarter of 2014, primarily because of an $8 million decline in the trade division, which had strong movie tie-in sales for The Hobbit and Life of Pi in 2013, but also because of “book store sales declines attributable to the severe winter weather conditions across the country.” As a result, the trade division recorded a net loss of $5.2 milion, and adjusted EBITDA of a loss of $1.3 million — compared to an EBITDA gain of $6.7 million a year go. Trade sales were $32 million for the period. Companywide, HMH […]

In the traditionally modest European quarterly trading update style, Bertelsmann reported sales of 3.9 billion euros (up 8.5 percent from a year ago) and operating EBIT from continuing operations of 256 million euros (down 36 percent). CEO Thomas Rabe said in the release: “Our operating performance is good, and last year’s major transactions are paying off. We invested heavily in our content and services businesses in the first three months of 2014 and have made significant progress in putting our strategy into action.” Rabe also reiterated plans to invest in education, adding: “In the long-term, this sector will become a […]

Torstar reported first quarter results Wednesday morning, with Harlequin recording slightly lower sales and significantly lower profits compared to a year ago. Sales of $99 million (CA) were down $3.3 million or 3 percent, while operating earnings of $12.8 million fell more, down $4.3 million, a 25 percent drop from a year ago. But the company says, “Harlequin anticipated that earnings would be lower in the first quarter of 2014 relative to the very strong results posted in the first quarter of 2013 which represented the strongest quarter of 2013.” That contextualization is strange, however, if you actually look at […]

Amazon reported first quarter sales after the close of the market on Thursday, with sales of $19.74 billion (up 23 percent) and net income of $108 million, or 23 cents a share, both almost exactly in line with analysts’ expectations. Amazon’s stock rose by $13 a share Thursday in anticipation of the report, but the price has given back much more, down $32 a share and still falling, in early trading on Friday. (Amazon shares hit an all-time high of about $408 a share in January, but with the market rotating out of “momentum” and high-value tech stocks, it now […]

This year’s annual letter to shareholders from Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos provides a tour of a “small subset of…initiatives” at the company. “Readers & Authors” is the second item, after a celebration of Prime: “We’re investing heavily on behalf of readers. The all-new, high-resolution, high-contrast Kindle Paperwhite launched to rave reviews. We integrated the very impressive Goodreads into Kindle, introduced FreeTime for Kindle, and launched Kindle in India, Mexico, and Australia…. Joining CreateSpace, Kindle Singles, and Kindle Direct Publishing, is the new service Kindle Worlds, the literary journal Day One, eight new Amazon Publishing imprints, and the launch of Amazon Publishing […]

Berteslmann released its financial report for the fiscal year 2013, which included the first-ever annual revenues for the combined Penguin Random House entity. Including a half-year’s worth of revenue from Penguin, total sales of €2.655 billion for PRH (plus Random House Germany, which remains a separate company, but was reported with Bertelsmann’s book publishing interests) were 23.9 percent higher than the €2.142 billion reported for Random House’s record-setting 2012. But after adjusting for currency and excluding Penguin, revenues naturally decreased  compared to last year’s “exceptional success” of the FIFTY SHADES trilogy. (The three books still sold another seven million units in […]