Harlequin’s parent company Torstar reported second quarter results Wednesday morning. The book publishing unit had sales of $99.5 million (CA), down by $7.5 million. EBITDA was down $7.6 million in the quarter at $11.5 million, which Torstar attributed to “a combination of lower revenues, higher author royalties for digital sales and less favorable adjustments to prior year returns provisions partially offset by lower costs and savings from restructuring initiative.” The unit also took another $1 million charge — half for staff reductions as part of their ongoing restructuring, and half for “other charges.” As in the past, the 7 percent […]
Publishers
Penguin Sales Rise 16 Percent, But Unit Loses Money On Settlements and Merger
Pearson reported sales for Penguin for the last time, covering the first six months of 2013, right up to the creation of Penguin Random House. The trade publisher had a strong start, with books from Khaled Hosseini and Sylvia Day helping to power a 16 percent overall (and 6 percent underlying) growth in sales, to £513 pounds, up from £441 a year ago (which had been a weak report for Penguin). Adjusted operating profit rose £6 million, to £28 million for the period — but that was more than wiped out by £46 million in “costs relating to the formation […]
Scholastic Finishes Fiscal Year Dominated By Hunger Games Falloff
The storyline behind Scholastic’s fiscal 2013 reports has been the adjustment back to normal as the previous year’s extraordinary THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy sales — which sold upwards of 50 million copies in fiscal 2012 — leveled off. The results were in line with or ahead of their revised guidance, even though the numbers reflect a reset for the company. They took another charge of 21 cents per share in the quarter “related to cost reduction and restructuring programs” that included $6.6 million in pretax severance payments. For the year ahead, they forecast similar results, projecting sales of approximately $1.8 billion, […]
Sales Rise at OUP
Oxford University Press reported their results for the fiscal year ending March 2013, with sales rising 5 percent (or 4.4 percent on a like-for-like basis) and strong profits. Total sales were £759 million (up £36 million), “in spite of the difficult trading conditions.” Pre-tax profit of £116 million was up slightly, while higher taxes made the net profit a few million pounds lower. Chief executive Nigel Portwood notes, “These results compare favorably with those of our competitors, and are all the more impressive given the difficulties we faced.” PDF report
With Trade Division Selloff “Effectively Complete,” Wiley Anticipates Further Restructuring Costs and Layoffs
Fourth quarter adjusted sales at Wiley rose 3 percent to $441 million, as operating income of $58.9 million dropped 9 percent and adjusted net income of $42.6 million (or 71 cents a share) was down 6 percent. For the full year, sales of $1.761 billion were virtually flat compared to a year ago, with operating income of $252.4 million and net income of $175.6 million declining 6 and 7 percent, respectively. (Adjusted results reflect the trade publishing properties sold to Google, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and other companies, a process which was “effectively complete” by the end of the fourth quarter.) […]
Profits Rise at Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury finished their fiscal year ending February 28 well, riding digital growth to pre-tax profit of £9.8 million (up 16 percent), even as sales only nudged up $1.1 million to £98.5 million from continuing operations. Underlying sales — excluding the Fairchild Books and Applied Visual Arts acquisitions from during the year, were down 5 percent, to £92.5 million. eBook sales rose “strongly” as print declined, up 61 percent overall to £9.1 million. eBooks accounted for 13 percent of adult trade sales; in the US they comprised “27 percent of net title sales, but UK e-book sales are accelerating and now […]