The ramp-up of Kobo impaired Canadian retailer Indigo’s earnings in their fourth quarter (ending April 3), down $1.4 million (CA) to just $500,000. While the Canadian market has been more stable than the US or the UK, Indigo’s sales suffered in the final quarter as well. Working on a 13-week comparison to the same quarter a year ago, superstore sales fell 2.7 percent and smaller format stores were down 5.8 percent, while online sales declined 3.3 percent. (They reported a 14-week fourth quarter, and a 53-week fiscal year.) CEO Heather Reisman blamed “no blockbuster hit to compete with last year’s […]
International News
More On that Quickly Restored Third Day of BEA
BEA’s hasty announcement yesterday morning that next year’s show will restore a third day of floor exhibits caught most people by surprise so it took us a little while to do more than pass along the basic news. When show director Steve Rosato wrote “while many people liked BEA as a two-day show, more people need BEA to be a three-day show,” here’s what he apparently meant. While anecdotally most US publishers were happy with a jam-packed two days of exhibits without the “tumbleweeds” as one executive put it of the third day, it’s the international exhibitors who were close […]
iPad Takes the World
Apple’s iPad released today in major book markets included UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Germany–plus France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. Though the UK iBookstore launch was preceded by worried speculation that UK publishers were concerned aspects of Apple’s contract might run afoul of local pricing laws, lo and behold, Ye Agency Foure (Hachette UK, Penguin, Pan Macmillan and Harper UK) are all participating. (The smallest of the group, Simon & Schuster UK, is not currently participating and has yet to comment.) But no other UK publishers are known to have a direct relationship with Apple yet, and again Random UK […]
Faber's Page on Publishers' Priorities in the Digital Age, And Corollaries from BEA
In concert with iPad launch, Faber and Faber ceo Stephen Page has an essay in the Guardian on what it means for publishers: “It’s clear that publishers must move faster to establish our compelling and useful role in the modern life of reading. While acquiring new expertise, we must assert the best of our traditional strengths; providing capital (in the form of advance payments), offering editorial expertise, and creating a readership by designing, creating, storing, promoting and selling the works of writers. But that’s not enough. Publishers also have to explain what value they are bringing to the relationship between […]
Larsson Windfall Finally Kicks In As Quercus Sales Rise 75%
Sales at the UK’s Quercus rose 75 percent in the past year, now up to 19.13 million pounds as they finally enjoy the river of cash from holding world rights to Steig Larsson’s trilogy. That said, the company–and market–has been troubled enough that they still wrote down a chunk of author advances, impairing profits. Operating profit before tax was 1.19 million pounds. Creditors are nearly getting paid on time now, down from 126 days to 74 days, and with luck that means authors are getting paid on a more timely fashion, too. With the Larsson revenue stream growing constantly, preliminary […]
Disney Takes Over Marvel Publishing; Cursor Signs with PGW
Disney Publishing announced today that they are taking over management of–and aiming to expand–subsidiary Marvel Entertainment’s children’s licensed book publishing business worldwide. “Working with key licensees around the world, including the U.S. market, DPW will create original new content for coloring and activity, novelty, gift and sound books as well as for high end storybooks and chapter books.” Richard Nash’s start-up line has officially confirmed their distribution deal with PGW, starting July 1–though their first print title, Lynne Tillman’s Some Day This Will be Funny, won’t publish until spring 2011.