Revenue in Salem Media Group’s publishing division rose from $6.7 million in the second quarter of 2015 to $6.8 million in the comparable period in 2016. The division had a net loss of about $200,000 in the quarter compared to income of $300,000 a year ago.
The publishing division includes Regnery Publishing, and Regnery president and publisher Marji Ross said the increase in second quarter sales was due to strong advance orders for Dinesh D’Souza’s Hillary’s America, which has sold more than 40,000 copies since its release at the beginning of July, according to Nielsen BookScan; it will be #2 on PW’s adult hardcover nonfiction list for this week. Regnery also benefited from solid sales of Stephen Coonts’s Liberty’s Last Stand, the first novel published by the company. Defeating Jihad by Sebastian Gorka also did well in the quarter, Ross said.
Ross attributed the decline in profits to booking higher reserves for anticipated unearned advances on some 2015 and 2016 titles.
For the first half of 2016, Salem’s publishing group revenue rose 4%, to $11.6 million, but the division had a loss in the period of $400,000 compared to income of $300,000 in the first six months of 2015.
After the close of the quarter, Salem reported that it acquired the assets of Hillcrest Media. Hillcrest provides publishing services to self-publishers, and Salem plans to integrate its assets into its Xulon Press unit.
