After riding high on movie-driven sales of The Hunger Games, Scholastic has swung the other way, warning investors of multiple weaknesses in their business. In an announcement late Tuesday, Scholastic cited “lower curriculum product sales in its Educational Technology and Services segment,” as funds move to training in advance of the Common Core standards implementation–but also blamed on “a delay in purchasing decisions due to continued uncertainty regarding the federal budget.” Their book club business has also softened, both because of now “lower than anticipated US sales of The Hunger Games trilogy” and the impact of Hurricane Sandy. As result, […]
Publishers
Books-A-Million Sales Rise Again in Third Quarter On Soft Store Comps; Courier Publishing Revenues Decline
Books-A-Million reported third quarter results Tuesday afternoon, and for the fourth straight quarter sales rose — thanks to the dozens of stores they added after Borders closed — but same-store sales continued their pattern of declines as well, down 3.6 percent. Sales of $104.7 million were up 11 percent compared to a year ago, and their net loss of $2.8 million for the quarter was an improvement from the $3.8 million in losses a year earlier. BAMM ceo and president Terence Finley said the third quarter results “reflect stabilization in our core book business and improvements in our toys & […]
Trade Publishing Rebounds at Lagardere; Bertelsmann Gains on Subdued Outlook
After a weak second quarter, trade publishing sales rebounded as expected for Lagardere Publishing, with revenues of 626 million euros for third quarter. That’s a 4.1 percent gain over sales of 601 million euros a year ago, when the company had a particular weak third quarter; sales are still below the same period from 2010, and only gained one-tenth of a percent after the effects of currency exchange. Results were boosted by the release of JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy right before the end of the quarter, raising trade sales by 7.3 percent in the US, 17 percent in the […]
Results Plunge at Cengage
Cengage has a new ceo, Michael Hansen (Ron Dunn is now executive chairman), who had the unpleasant task of announcing “very disappointing” results for the quarter ending September 30 last Friday: Sales fell 22 percent to $538 million, down from $692 million a year, and operating income declined 49 percent, to $122.7 million, less than debt service for the quarter of $131 million. Among the problems cited, “a significant reduction in the level of purchases by one channel partner contributed to the decline in revenues.” Net debt stood at $5.47 billion at the end of the quarter, and all of […]
Profits Rebound at Simon & Schuster Even As Sales Decline 4.5 Percent
CBS reported strong third quarter results after the close of the market on Tuesday, but sales at their Simon & Schuster unit fell 4.5 percent, down $10 million to $210 million, as OIBDA rose $1 million to $39 million. CBS said “strong growth in digital book sales was more than offset by lower print book sales.” That digital growth was not as strong as in the past, though; digital sales increased only 20 percent compared to the same period a year ago. (In the second quarter, digital was up 44 percent compared to the prior year; in the first quarter […]
Harper Reports “Solid” First Quarter and “Significant” Revenue Gain From Thomas Nelson
News Corp. reported first quarter earnings after the close of the market Tuesday. As usual, the release says almost nothing about book publishing results in particular, though at least this time they actually mention Harper by name, in relation to the acquisition of Thomas Nelson, which News Corp deemed a “benefit” to the overall company. Operating income at the newspaper-dominated publishing division fell almost in half for the second straight quarter, at $57 million, compared to $110 million a year ago. The publishing results reflected a $67 million charge related to closing News of the World (as compared to $17 […]