Publishing industry stocks did not fare well in the first six months of 2010, with stock prices for 13 of the 15 companies that appear on the Publishers Weekly Stock Index falling in the January through June period. In all, the PWSI fell 14.3%, a much more severe decline than the 6.3% drop posted by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The only two winners in the six months were Hastings Entertainment, which posted a huge increase of 71.7%, helped by a better than expected first quarter, and Borders Group, although the struggling chain's share price was still at only $1.33.

Borders's rival Barnes & Noble had the largest decline in the first half of the year, with its stock price falling 32.3%. Investors apparently did not buy into B&N executives forecast that e-books and e-readers provide the company with its next major growth opportunity and focused more on the costs involved in making the digital transition. At $12.90 per share on June 30, B&N's share price was less than half of its 52-week high of $28.78. Amazon's stock price was well off its year-end high, but was still trading at $109.26 per share.

Stock Performance, January-June



























































Company December 31 June 30 % Change
Hastings Entertainment 4.46 7.66 71.7%
Borders Group 1.18 1.33 12.7
Walt Disney Co. 32.25 31.50 -2.3
John Wiley 41.88 38.67 -7.7
CBS 14.05 12.93 -8.0
Educational Dev. Corp 6.00 5.51 -8.2
Pearson 14.36 13.15 -8.4
Books-A-Million 6.72 6.02 -10.4
Reed Elsevier 32.79 29.30 -10.6
Scholastic 29.83 24.12 -13.1
Courier Corp. 14.25 12.21 -14.3
McGraw-Hill Cos. 33.51 28.14 -16.0
Amazon 134.52 109.26 -18.8
R.R. Donnelley 22.27 16.37 -26.5
Barnes & Noble 19.07 12.90 -32.3
Publishers Weekly
Stock Index 407.14 349.07 -14.3
Dow Jones Average 10,428.05 9,774.02 -6.3