Hachette UK has hired Matthew Cashmore for the new position of digital director, charged with evaluating their digital strategy and finding new online revenue streams. He was innovation and ecosystem manager at Lonely Planet.
International News
Sales and Profits Rebound At Random House
Random House reported sales for the first half of the year of 791 million euros, up 57 million euros (or almost 8 percent) from a year ago, as operating EBIT doubled to a still-modest margin of 40 million euros. CEO Markus Dohle writes that “our performance was led by the US division, which combined bestseller dominance with lower physical returns.” Stieg Larsson’s sales of 6.5 million copies in the US and Germany were a “substantial” factor in the improved results. Dohle also points to the company’s “robust digital-publishing momentum.” He says that within the fiscal year, worldwide digital sales will […]
Paper Claims Investors May Push for Waterstone’s Spin-Off
The UK offers two grain-of-salt stories today. In the first, the Guardian has suddenly noticed that leading bookselling chain Waterstone’s has been struggling and declares that “rebel shareholders” want HMV to consider selling the unit if margins do not improve soon. Who are these rebels and what kind of stake do they hold? Um, they cite one anonymous shareholder, “”Although Waterstone’s accounts for around a quarter of HMV’s turnover, it has a perfectly viable business without books. The day of reckoning is fast approaching.” And a second unnamed “investor” (which is different how from a shareholder?) says, “another investor said: […]
Bloomsbury Does Better with Publishing than Investments
Sales at Bloomsbury rose 4.5 percent in the first half of the year, to 36.8 million pounds, though pre-tax profit fell by a little more than half, at 949,000 pounds. Profits on the publishing side fell by 23 percent, mostly due to the inclusion of the new Bloomsbury Professional unit (based on their acquisition of law and tax publisher Tottel), “which is typically loss making in the first half of the year.” Investment income on the mountain of residual Harry Potter cash declined much more sharply, down from 842,000 pounds to 180,000 pounds, reaffirming that the company is much better […]
How Can the UK Be Surprised By eBook Price War?
From this side of the Atlantic it looks obvious, but following the launch of the local Kindle store and price competition from WH Smith, at least some UK trade people are both upset and somehow surprised by the turn of events. Upset enough to give colorful quotes to the Bookseller, but not so firm on principle as to be identified by name, a “senior publisher” declares “it’s absolutely absurd to devalue our product but I’m not surprised because our industry is populated by nincompoops.” It’s not exactly clear who falls into this colorful category, since the same executive who is […]
More Concerns about Australia/New Zealand Bookselling Giant; McNally Jackson Still Waiting for Espresso to Brew
We noted in late July that RedGroup–the dominant bookseller in Australia and New Zealand under the Whitcoulls, Angus & Robertson and Borders ANZ operations–was talking to its lenders about getting a waiver from an expected breach of their borrowing covenants. (Even so, they were reportedly projecting ebitda of approximately $25 million AU for their fiscal year ending in late August.) A new story in Crikey cites industry sources whom claim the group “has been forced to jack up prices, increase returns and extend trading terms with its suppliers.” One anonymous publisher says the chains have asked for 120 days to […]