Penguin’s parent company Pearson reported results for the first half of the year on Friday morning, with Penguin the only unit that declined in the period. Sales of £441 million were down £16 million from a year ago (4%), and operating profit suffered more, at £22 million down from £42 million a year ago. The company cited three factors in their performance: “A lighter publishing schedule, the exceptional performance of competitor bestsellers The Hunger Games and Fifty Shades of Grey and continued pressure on physical book publishing and retailing.” As evidence of that lighter schedule, Penguin US had 132 bestsellers […]
Publishers
McGraw-Hill Has Second Straight Quarter of “Record” Profits
McGraw-Hill reported second quarter earnings Thursday morning. Adjusted net income from continuing operations was $243 million, up 15 percent and ahead of estimates in what was another “record” quarter for the company. Sales dropped 1 percent to $1.55 billion for the quarter. The education division recorded sales of $474 million, down 12 percent, while net profit, at $57 million, was a 36 percent improvement compared to a year ago–helped, they say, by the restructuring at the end of the last year as well as “ongoing tight expense management.” The company adds, as they did in the previous quarter, that the […]
Courier’s Publishing Division Continues Slide
Courier reported third quarter earnings, as their publishing business continues to shrink. Sales of $9.1 million were down 8 percent, though the operating loss of just under $1 million was a small improvement. Sales fell 2 percent at Dover and 31 percent at Creative Homeowner, with their REA line growing 2 percent. They launched the beta version of DoverPictura.com, an online store of over 100,000 images, during the period. Companywide, sales of $59 million were down 5 percent, “affected by a shift in ordering patterns in the education market, with textbook publishers tightening their inventory management in the current economy […]
The Hunger Games Boosted Scholastic Q4 And Full Year Earnings, Though They Temper Expectations For Next Year
The three words repeated often in Scholastic’s earnings report for the successful fourth quarter and fiscal 2012 year — The Hunger Games — should come as no surprise. The trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins now has more than 50 million copies to date in print and digital formats, the company also announced Thursday morning (23 million copies for The Hunger Games, 14 million for Catching Fire, and 13 million for Mockingjay.) That means they added over 13.5 million units since the end of March (after shipping and/or selling 12.5 million units in the first quarter of the year). So much […]
Fourth Quarter Sales and Profits Boosts Wiley’s Modest Overall Full-Year Earnings
Sales at Wiley rose 2 percent to $455 million in their fiscal fourth quarter and adjusted earnings rose 73 percent to 80 cents a share. For the full year, revenue was up 1 percent to $1.783 billion, while adjusted earnings rose 11 percent to $3.21 a share. (That amount excludes a 12 cents per share tax reserve release originally recorded as part of its Blackwell acquisition, and a 10 cents per share Borders writedown dating to the previous fiscal year.) In the professional/trade division, sales rose 4 percent to $114 million for the quarter (including $3.3 million of revenue from […]
Corporate: Indigo Q4 Sales Decline Despite One-Shot Kobo Earnings Gain; Flammarion Sale Negotiations Are Extended
Indigo reported sales of C$196 million for the fourth quarter ending March 31, down 2 percent from the previous year, while suffering an operating loss of C$15.7 million from continuing operations, higher than the C$13.7 million the company lost the previous year. But Indigo received a one-shot earnings gain of C$135.7 million from selling Kobo to Rakuten (booking a pre-tax gain of $165 million, presumably less operating losses from the unit). For the full fiscal year, Indigo revenues decreased 2.3 percent to C$934 million and the company reported net profits of C$66.2 million — of which C$94 million was attributed […]