On Thursday, British retailer WH Smith reported sales for the full year ended August 31. For the year, sales rose 7 percent to £1.918 billion with profit before tax and non-underlying items up 16 percent to £166 million. High street sales were “in line with expectations” at £452 million, down 4 percent from £469 million. Profit of £39 million was down from £43 million a year ago. The company made plain what has been clear for a while from their results and their strategy: As they grow the travel business, the high street division—which accounts for about 15 percent of […]
Forthcoming: Sofi Oksanen’s ‘Same River, Twice’; Clinton’s Citizen
Harper Via will publish Finnish-Estonian writer Sofi Oksanen‘s nonfiction work SAME RIVER, TWICE: PUTIN’S WAR ON WOMEN worldwide on February 25. Tor Jonasson at Salomonsson Agency in Sweden sold world English rights to Juan Mila. The publisher writes, “[Oksanen] delves into the trauma endured by her great-aunt under Soviet occupation, paralleling it with the ongoing abuses perpetrated by the Russian government over the past century. Her work lays bare the gender-based violence and systemic oppression that form part of the regime’s larger strategy.” Separately, the Guardian obtained an early copy of next week’s release of Bill Clinton‘s CITIZEN. They report […]
People 11/13
Bloomsbury Restructures Academic Division
On Tuesday, Bloomsbury restructured its Academic division, following the acquisition of Roman & Littlefield in May, integrating editorial, marketing, and sales teams “alongside a streamlined approach to branding.” According to a spokesperson for the company, a “small number” of positions in the division were cut. At the time of the R&L acquisition, Bloomsbury said it brought over 115 new employees to the company. The spokesperson said, “The purpose of the new structure is to co-ordinate our global publishing strategy with integrated US and UK editorial teams organized around subject and product expertise, scalability to match both the new size of […]
Penguin Publishing Group Acquires Amber-Allen Publishing List
Penguin Publishing Group announced it is acquiring the publishing assets of Amber-Allen Publishing, with Tarcher Perigee managing the titles once the deal is completed. Founded in 1990, Amber-Allen is a self-help and spiritual publisher, whose books include The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz and Janet Mills, which has sold over 15 million copies. Tacher Perigee publisher Tracy Behar said in a release, “Amber-Allen, and especially the Toltec Wisdom series, has had a remarkable and enduring impact on the world. It is a great honor to protect the legacy that Janet Mills has created, and to bring these classic titles into […]
Audiobooks Contribute to Higher Spotify Margins
In its third quarter earnings report on Tuesday, Spotify noted that audiobooks (along with music) contributed to a gross margin increase for the brand’s premium offering, up 473 bps to 31.1 percent. Premium subscribers grew 12 percent compared to a year ago, up to 252 million. Those subscribers are up 6 million from the second quarter and the company expects to add another 8 million in the current quarter. Overall sales for the company were up 19 percent to €3.988 billion ($4.227 billion at current exchange rates) and operating income was €454 million. According to the Wall Street Journal, “a […]