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Profits, Sales Up at WH Smith in Fiscal 2024
North America, especially U.S. airport stores, is becoming a major growth engine for the U.K.-based bookstore chain. Sales in North America rose 9% in fiscal 2024, to £401 million.
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Digital Sales Drive Gains at HarperCollins
Led by digital audiobooks, sales at HarperCollins rose 4% in the quarter ended September 30 over the comparable period a year ago, and profits jumped 25%. 'Hillbilly Elegy' by J.D. Vance sold 1.5 million copies in the quarter.
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Amazon Expects a Strong Finish to 2024
Third quarter results exceeded expectations at Amazon, and the company expects a strong fourth quarter, forecasting that total sales will rise between 7% and 11% over last year’s final period, to as much as $188.5 billion.
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Book Publishing Sales Stayed Hot in August
In the adult trade segment, total sales were up nearly 12% for the month over 2023 at publishers that report to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot Program. Religious presses were up a hefty 47.4%, and digital audio showed a 38.8% increase.
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With Romantasy Still Soaring, Bloomsbury Hits Another Record
Booming sales in its consumer division, driven by huge demand for books by Sarah J. Maas and the acquisition of the Rowman & Littlefield academic group, resulted in revenue jumping 32% at the publisher, with earnings doubling in the first half of fiscal 2025.
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Comics Sales Soften, but Still Surpass Pre-Pandemic Levels
This year's ICv2 Insider Talks found that while comics sales were down 7% from the “Covid peak” of 2022—with manga, once the primary driver for comics growth, seeing the largest drop—they're still holding strong, with 2023 sales up 67% above 2019.
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HBG Shines in Third Quarter
While third quarter sales at Lagardère Publishing were flat in the most recent period, sales at Hachette Book Group were strong with increases in digital sales helping drive up revenue.
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Scholastic’s Fiscal Year 2025 Is Off to a Positive Start
Helped by the acquisition of 9 Story Media, sales rose 4% at Scholastic in the quarter ended August 31, 2024, and the publisher cut its operating loss.
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Verso Holds Kickstarter Campaign to Boost U.K. Business
With sales to U.K. bookstores shut off by the bankruptcy of its U.K. distributor Marston, the radical U.K./U.S. publisher has turned to Kickstarter to raise $134,000 to support its fall publishing program. It has raised close to $100,000 in the first 24 hours of the campaign.
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Publishing Sales Saw Solid Six-Month Gains, Per AAP
According to AAP's StatShot program, industry sales were up 5.6% in the first half of 2024. Sales of adult titles rose 6.7%, but sales in the children's and young adult segment fell 2.7%.
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Barnes & Noble Education Looks for Improvement in Fiscal 2025
In the quarter just before the fall rush season begins, B&NE saw sales of its inclusive access programs rise 32% as it continued its efforts to better control costs. Total sales slipped 0.3%, to $263.4 million.
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Print Book Sales Dipped in Canada in First Six Months of 2024
Unit sales of English-language trade print books sold in Canada fell 2% in the first half of 2024 from the comparable period in 2023 at stores that report data to BookNet Canada.
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Wiley Wraps Up Divestiture Program, Looks at AI Opportunities
The company it has completed the sale of three companies and saw gains from recent AI partnerships in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, with CEO Matthew Kissner promising that Wiley is prepared to "move decisively on AI opportunities."
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Sales, Earnings Rose at Penguin Random House in the First Half of 2024
A good performance by PRH US, higher audiobook sales, and contributions from recently acquired companies led to a 13% increase in profits on an 8.5% sales gain at the world's largest trade publisher.
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Publishing Revenue Fell Slightly in 2023, but Unit Sales Dropped 5.7%
The final 2023 industry sales report from the Association of American Publishers found sales of digital audiobooks poised to surpass those of e-books, higher net prices helping to offset a drop in unit sales, and more.
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Investors Unhappy with Webtoon Quarterly Report
Currency fluctuations and flat monthly user numbers prompted investors to sell off shares of Webtoon, which went public earlier this year.
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HarperCollins Profits Soared in Fiscal 2024
Following a year of significant restructuring, earnings at the publisher rose 61% over fiscal 2023 on a 6% increase in sales.
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Cloud Services Drive Amazon in Second Quarter
Results at Amazon Web Services helped to increase second quarter sales and profits 10% and 90%, respectively, at the company, while sales in its online sales division rose only 5%.
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Storytel Has Profitable Q2, Former Bonnier Exec Named CEO
Outgoing Storytel CEO Johannes Larcher touted a sales increase of 9% and operating profit of $4.4 million in its second quarter as "the best financial performance in the history of the company." Larcher's replacement, Bodil Ericsson Torp, starts on October 1.
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Lagardère Publishing Profits Jumped 48% in First Half of 2024
A 7.7% sales increase at the recently restructured Hachette Book Group was a key contributor to a 5% rise in revenue at Lagardère Publishing in the first six months of 2024.