Revenue

Academia Versus Academia.edu: Should Tech Business Needs Trump Scholarly Culture?
May 20, 2015

Though often used in a pejorative manner, the concept of the "ivory tower" is based on a separation from the concerns of the everyday-the idea of academia serving a higher purpose than the rat race of business. Last week Rick Anderson wrote about the higher standards of behavior required from scholarly publishers, and watchdogs continually call out any deviation from the strict rigor that characterizes academic research itself. As technology startups continue to hold more sway over scholarly communication, should we similarly hold those companies and their business practices to the same high standards?

Amazon’s Thriving Book Business to Crank Out 2,000 Titles by 2016
May 19, 2015

Amazon's book publishing business is turning a page to a new chapter on growth. In 2016, the company's publishing division plans to release 2,000 titles, up from 1,200 this year, and today, it ranks as the second-largest publisher on Kindle in the U.S, according to Publisher's Weekly, which interviewed Amazon's VP of Publishing Jeff Belle via email.

While the company is often recognized for being a massive seller of books, less is known about Amazon's publishing division, which appears to be thriving.

Pearson Loses Texas Contract for Standardized Exams
May 19, 2015

Pearson, the only company to have handled Texas' public school standardized tests, probably won't be running the next four years of STAAR. The Texas Education Agency decided to offer most of a new testing contract to rival ETS.

Whether students, teachers or school officials will notice the change is a question state officials declined to answer Monday.

If the contract is signed, Education Testing Service will coordinate the testing program and develop, administer, score and report results of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness

New Harry Potter Illustrated Editions Spell Rising Sales for Bloomsbury
May 19, 2015

Harry Potter has conjured up another year of wizard sales for Bloomsbury, helping the publisher to ride out a decline in income from adult fiction.
Sales of the boy wizard's adventures grew by 29% last year, following a reissue of all seven novels with new covers by Flintshire-based artist Jonny Duddle. Other star performers were The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman and Paper Towns by John Green, which helped boost revenues at Bloomsbury children's division by 13%, allowing the publisher eke out a modest rise in total profits.

What Happened to Brazil’s Booming Book Business?
May 14, 2015

Over the past few years, professionals at international book fairs have enthused about the booming Brazilian publishing market. Brazil has been the guest of honor at Frankfurt, Bologna, Gothenburg, and Paris, among other book fairs. Stories of incredible six-figure deals negotiated in double-quick time and of sales figures in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of copies were being bandied about in cafés and offices, from New York to Oslo and beyond. Ominously, however, it seems that at the London Book Fair this year, it was Spanish-speaking Latin America

On the Likelihood of Academia “Taking Back” Scholarly Publishing
May 13, 2015

This week we've featured two posts (here and here) which discuss the impact that large commercial publishers are having on libraries. The question was raised in our Comments-if "big deals" and sometimes ruthless business practices are problematic for libraries and the academic community as a whole, then why continue to do business with them? As Rick Anderson responded, the marketplace remains somewhat distorted, with poor signaling between those paying for journals and those using journals (his post discussing this in detail is worth reading).

Slumping E-books Lead to Sales Decline at HBG
May 12, 2015

While sale for the entire Lagardere Publishing Group rose in the first quarter of 2015, compared to last year's first period, revenue at Hachette Book Group USA declined 12.3%, the company reported Tuesday morning.

The revenue decline in the U.S. was due to lower e-book sales plus difficult comparisons to the first quarter of 2014, when HBG had a number of big bestsellers including The Goldfinch, I Am Malala and Grain Brain. Lagardere attributed this quarter's drop in e-book sales, in part, to the fact that the company's results do not yet reflect a return to normal business with Amazon.