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Third-Quarter Profits Jump at Harlequin
Third-quarter sales rose 22.5% at Harlequin on a 3.7% sales gain. Earnings were helped by lower costs and foreign exchange.
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Book Prices Have Modest Increases
With book prices continuing to be a major top-of-industry conversation, the U.S. Department of Labor has released statistics that show book prices have risen slowly since 2000, and much slower than the overall Consumer Price Index. Between 2000 and 2008, book price rose 5.15%, according to the Labor Department, compared to an increase of 25.
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Weak School Sales Drop Results at McGraw-Hill Education
Sales in McGraw-Hill Education's school segment fell 19.6% in the third quarter, resulting in an 11.6% decline for the entire company. Results were strongest in the college division.
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Wall Street Journal to Run BookScan Bestseller Lists
The Wall Street Journal is running bestseller lists from Nielsen BookScan, starting today. Nielsen is providing three weekly charts, for hardcover fiction, hardcover nonfiction, and business. The charts will appear in the print newspaper and on WSJ.com every Friday. The paper previously developed its own bestseller lists.
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Industry Stocks: August Performances
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Digital Sales Spur Wiley
With digital sales showing solid gains in its three operating groups, digital products accounted for 39% of total revenue at John Wiley & Sons in the fiscal year ended April 30. Digital's deepest penetration was in the scientific/technical/medical/scholarly segment, where it accounted for 59% of revenue, led by online journals as well as e-books. In the professional/trade segment, digital revenue included $23 million in e-book sales, plus online advertising and content licensing sales of $21 million. The growth in digital revenue in the P/T group was enough to offset a slight decline in print sales, which fell from about $400 million in fiscal 2010 to $394 million last year. The $49 million in digital sales in the higher education unit included $13 million in digital-only sales from WileyPlus, and $13 million in e-book sales. Sales from nontraditional sources, including digital, totalled $84 million in fiscal 2011.
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Continuum Results Improve
The academic publisher Continuum, which has offices in New York and London, reported its first positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) in four years for fiscal 2010 ended June 30. The publisher had EBITDA of 256,000 pounds compared to negative EBITDA of 740,000 pounds in fiscal 2009. Sales rose 6.5%, from 9.7 million pounds to 10.3 million pounds. Chief executive Oliver Gadsby called fiscal 2010 "a transformational year."