Finance

Revenue fell 3.3% in the first half of 2018 compared to a year ago at Penguin Random House, and earnings dropped 17%. The decline was attributed mainly to the negative impact of foreign exchange rates.

Barnes & Noble Education reported that revenue in the first quarter, ended July 28, fell to $337.5 million, down from $355.7 million a year ago.

Capped by a blowout fourth quarter, HarperCollins reported that earnings for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2018 rose 23% over fiscal 2017, to $244 million. The earnings jump came on a 7% revenue rise, to $1.76 billion.

Second quarter sales at Regnery rose 16.7% over 2017, but softness in Salem Media's self-publishing unit led to a 9% decline in total revenue at Salem's publishing division in the second period.

Second quarter sales rose by $1 million at Simon & Schuster, and earnings increased by $2 million. Parent company CBS did not address sexual harassment charges against CEO Les Moonves in the conference call discussing results.

With sales of backlist and frontlist titles down, as well as a drop in e-book sales, revenue in HMH's trade division fell 15% In the second quarter ended June 30.

Book publishing revenue increased 5.5% in the January to April period over the same period in 2017, according to figures released by the AAP as part of its StatShot statistics program. The year-to-date gains include a 4.4% sales increase in April over April 2017.

Revenue in the first half of 2018 rose 1.4% over the comparable period in 2017 at the Hachette Book Group, parent company Lagardère reported, and profits rose by an unspecified amount.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2018, operating income at Amazon increased to $3.0 billion, compared with operating income of $628 million in the second quarter of 2017.

The Schottenfeld Management Corp. has acquired over 4.1 million shares of Barnes & Noble and says in a filing that it has already talked to the retailer about actions it can take to improve shareholder value.