Lagardere reported fourth quarter and full-year sales (but in the European tradition, will not add complete performance information, including profits, until next month). The publishing division registered fourth quarter sales of 546 million euros, up 1.4 percent overall versus 537 million euros a year ago (and 556 million euros two years ago), but down 0.8 percent on a like-for-like basis. For the year, publishing sales of 2.077 billion euros were up 1.9 percent(but down 1.2 percent on a like-for-like basis, chalked up to foreign exchange issues.) Sales at Hachette Book Group USA fell 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to a 12.8 […]
Publishers
Harper’s Performance Is Opaque Again
News Corp. reported second quarter earnings after the close of the market Wednesday and the company has resumed disclosing nothing in particular about HarperCollins. The publisher said in a brief statement they “had a favorable second quarter.” (The previous quarter was called “solid”; a year ago, the second quarter was judged “challenging.”) In Wednesday’s investor call, president and coo Chase Carey actually mentioned the book publisher, saying HarperCollins “made progress this year.” eBook sales worldwide comprised 14 percent of sales–down slightly from 15 percent in the previous quarter. In a separate memo Harper UK, which always accentuates the positive, said […]
Courier Rebounds In Printing, But Not Publishing
Courier Corporation announced an improved first fiscal quarter: For the period ending December 29, sales rose 3 percent to $64.8 million and profits of $2.4 million were up considerably from $1.5 million a year ago. Digital printing sales rose “on continued growth of customized versions of college textbooks as well as increased use of digital printing among specialty trade publishers.” Their publishing division continues to suffer, as sales fell 3 percent to $9.1 million. The unit’s operating loss was $1.1 million, an improvement only by comparison to the loss of $1.3 million a year ago. The company expects sales to […]
Pearson Falls On Modest Profit Warning
In a trading update ahead of their full late-February earnings report, Pearson said to expect profits slightly short of what analysts had been expecting. Forecast operating profit of approximately £935 million and adjusted earnings of approximately 84 pence per share is only nine-tenths of a pence below expectations–but Pearson generally outperforms those expectations, and the stock has fallen in London on the news, down 4.5 percent over the past two days of trading. The release itself is disarmingly pleasant and polite. Penguin “benefited from a good fourth-quarter publishing performance and traded in line with our expectations,” and “will report revenues in […]
People, Etc.
Grand Central publisher Jamie Raab has been promoted to president (from executive vice president). CEO David Young wrote to staff: “In Jamie’s two and a half decades with the company, she and her team have created a diverse publishing program that spans just about every genre – commercial fiction and literary novels, celebrity bios and serious politics, business, romance, humor, and lifestyle – putting real muscle behind the campaigns and making GCP a fixture on bestseller lists.” He added, “Jamie is a brave and brilliant publisher, a trusted leader in the company, and an impassioned champion of authors. Here superb […]
HarperCollins Financials Revealed As Part of News Corp Spinoff Procedure
With News Corp.’s proposed spinoff of its publishing unit, aka New News Corp (the other division will be renamed Fox Group) moving forward, the company filed proxy documents with the SEC late Thursday outlining the scope of the proposed spinoff and revealing financial performance data for HarperCollins, after holding back on numbers ever since the close of fiscal 201o. For the most recent quarter, which ended September 30 (their fiscal first quarter), Harper reported sales of $352 million, up 17 percent from $301 million in 2011–largely because of the acqusition of Thomas Nelson in July, at the beginning of the […]