Reader's Digest reported another quarter of declining results for the second period ended December 31, 1997. Revenues for the entire company fell 7%, to $812.5 million, and net income dropped 35%, to $54.3 million. Results were particularly disappointing in the books and home entertainment segment, where sales declined 13%, to $476.5 million.
RD said about one-third of the decline in the book unit was due to the strength of the dollar, while the remainder reflects reduced revenues due to lower unit sales and sales of lower-priced products across most product lines and markets. Bright spots for the book group were Eastern Europe and Latin America.
Company chairman George Grune said that while the company is moving "aggressively" to fix its core businesses, he d s not expect to see improvements until the beginning of fiscal 1999, which starts July 1, 1998. For the first half of the current year, sales in the book and home entertainment group fell 16%, to $828.5 million, while sales for the entire company were down 10%, to $1.37 billion, and the publisher had a net loss of $2.7 million, compared to net income of $118.7 million in the first six months of fiscal 1997.
