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Third Quarter Sales Down at Hachette Book Group
Third quarter sales at Lagardere Publishing fell 5.2% in the third quarter, to 601 million euros, with sales off 8% in the U.S. and 10% in the U.K.
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Harper Paying $200 Million for Nelson
News Corp. is paying $200 million for Thomas Nelson, the parent company of HarperCollins disclosed in its quarterly filing on Friday.
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Simon & Schuster Has Strong Third Quarter
Growth in digital sales in the third quarter was enough to offset print declines giving Simon & Schuster a 1% increase in revenue to $220 million. OBIDA (Operating Income Before Depreciation & Amortization) rose 19%, to $38 million.
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HarperCollins Reports Rise in Quarterly Revenue, Profits
HarperCollins had a “a great quarter,” reporting an increase in revenue and profit over first quarter results last year. Some HarperCollins results were released as part of News Corps' results for the first fiscal quarter of 2012.
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Harlequin Results Show Improvement
Results at Harlequin improved in the third quarter ended September 30 compared to a sluggish second period, but were still down compared to the third quarter of 2010. The decline was due to unfavorable foreign exchange and excluding the impact of currency translation sales and earnings were up.
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CCC Distributed $171 Million in Royalties last Year
The Copyright Clearance Center distributed royalty payments of $171.1 million to rightsholders in fiscal year 2011, an increase of more than 10% over the previous year ($154.3 million). During the last 10 years, CCC has distributed more than $1.3 billion to rightsholders.
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E-book Sales Rose 116% in August
E-book sales from publishers that report to the AAP rose 116.5% in August, to $88.8 million, compared to August 2010.
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Digital Bolsters Bloomsbury
Total revenue at Bloomsbury for the six months ended August 31 rose 16.3%, to £44.9 million. A key contributor to the gain was a 564% increase in e-book sales to £2.5 million, 5.5% of total revenue.
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Sales Jump, Earnings Plunge at Amazon; Fire Orders Soar
Amazon posted another huge increase in sales in the third quarter ended September 30, with total revenue rising 44%, to $10.88 billion, but continued investments in infrastructure and technology led to a 73% decline in earnings to $63 million.
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Reader's Digest to Sell Allrecipes
Reader’s Digest has put its Allrecipes subsidiary up for sale. Its allrecipes.com Web site gets over 24 million monthly unique users globally, and there have been nine million downloads of mobile apps. RD is selling the company to focus on its “master brand strategy.”
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Third Quarter Results Fall at McGraw-Hill Education
With revenue in the school group down 21.4%, to $420.4 million, total sales at McGraw-Hill Education fell 11.1% in the third quarter ended August 31, to $937.3 million. Adjusted operating profit fell 11.0%, to $314.7 million. Sales in the higher education/professional/international group fell less than 1%, to $516.9 million.
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Educational Development Corp. Buys Stake in App Developer
Educational Development Corp. has made an equity investment in Demibooks, a Chicago-based technology company that has developed a platform to allow publishers and authors to create interactive books for the iPad.
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E-book Sales Doubled in July
E-book sales had their smallest increase of the year in July, while the adult hardcover segment had one of its strongest months, according to the AAP’s monthly sales report.
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Industry Stocks: September Performances
The Publishers Weekly Stock Index fell 4.0% in September and was down 7.3% for the third quarter. Still, the performance was better than that of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had a 6.0% decline in September and a 12.1% drop for the quarter. Three of the 14 companies on the PWSI managed to post an increase in their stock prices in September, led by the smallest company on the index, Educational Development Corp. Scholastic's share price benefited from an encouraging start to its fiscal year, and Amazon seems poised for another strong holiday season no matter how the economy performs.
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Report Sees Flat Consumer Book Spending in 2011
The latest Communications Industry Forecast report developed by the private investment firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson forecasts minimal growth for consumer book spending in 2011, with total expenditures inching up 0.1%, to $22.47 billion. The growth will be led by a 102.8% gain in spending on e-books that will offset a 4.9% decline in spending on new print books.
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Judge Gives Ok to B&N Purchase of Borders's IP Assets
Judge Martin Glenn, who is overseeing Borders's bankruptcy, gave his approval Monday to the $13.9 million sale of the defunct chain’s intellectual property to Barnes & Noble.
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Sales Rise at Scholastic, Loss Cut
Scholastic got fiscal 2012 off to a strong start, reporting a 9.6% increase in total revenue, to $318 million, while its net loss in the period ended August 31 was cut to $27.1 million from $35.2 million. Stronger results reflected higher sales of educational products and services to schools, as well as higher sales of children’s books in retail trade channels.
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Print Declines Outpace Digital Gains
Sales of print books in the major trade categories fell 22.9% in the first six months of 2011 at the houses that report figures to the Association of American Publishers. The declines were greatest among the adult segments, with sales down by more than 20% in the hardcover, trade paperback, and mass market paperback categories. While e-book sales jumped 161.3% in the six-month period, the gain was not enough to offset the decline in print, and combined e-book and print book revenue fell 8.6% at the reporting trade publishers. Print book sales were no doubt hurt by the demise of Borders, which sold few new titles from the major houses during the going-out-of-business sales conducted at closing stores.
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Wattpad Gets $3.5 Million in New Funding
Wattpad, an online writing community and e-book developer focused on delivering content to smartphones, announced that it has received $3.5 million in Series A funding led by Union Square ventures, along with W. Media Ventures and Golden Venture Partners
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E-book Sales Jump in June, Print Plunges
E-book sales rose 167% in June, to $80.2 million, at the 15 houses that reported figures to AAP’s monthly sales report and closed the first half of the year with sales up 161%, to $473.8 million.