Finance

Unit sales of print books declined 4.2% last week, as good debuts in adult fiction were not enough to offset declines in adult nonfiction and children's fiction.

Higher costs increased Scholastic's first quarter loss to $58.1 million, from $32 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2022, despite a 1.2% increase in sales. The results were "on plan," the publisher said, adding that it still expects sales and earnings in fiscal 2023 to rise over fiscal 2022.

Final sales numbers for 2021 from the Association of American Publishers show a 12.3% increase in industry sales, with total sales hitting $29.33 billion, up from $26.1 billion in 2020. Easing of the pandemic in 2021 had a significant impact on industry results.

Sales at Wiley were flat in the quarter ended July 31, 2022, but restructuring charges and higher costs, including higher T&E charges, led to an operating loss of $17 million.

High inflation and supply chain challenges combined to drop earnings at Penguin Random House 20.7% in the first half of 2022 compared to a year ago. Revenue rose 6.2%, to €1.92 billion, but even there the news was disappointing with parent company Bertelsmann noting that excluding the favorable impact of currency exchange, sales declined from…

Quarto Group reported that revenue rose 9% in the first six months of 2022 over the comparable period in 2021, to $61.9 million, and net income jumped 124%, to $4.7 million.

A 2.6% decline in sales of adult titles was offset by a 4.3% increase in sales of children’s/YA books in the first six months of 2022 compared to the first half of 2021. According to AAP's StatShot program, trade sales were $3.82 billion in the first half of the year, compared to $3.84 billion in…

Sales rose 10% at HarperCollins, to $2.19 billion, in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022, but higher costs limited the increase in profits to 1%.

Second quarter sales jumped 34% over last year’s second quarter at Simon & Schuster, and operating income leapt 54%. The strong results followed a first quarter which CEO Jonathan Karp said "defied gravity."

In the AAP’s newest StatShot update, May trade sales were mixed and sales of higher educational course materials fell, leading to a 3.7% sales decline compared to May 2021 for the 1,368 publishers that report sales to the association.