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Lagardère Publishing Has Record Year
Total revenue rose 9.4% at Hachette Book Group parent Lagardère Publishing in 2021, and profits jumped 42.7% over 2020. HBG sales rose 3.7%, excluding the impact of its Workman Publishing acquisition.
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S&S Sales Neared $1 Billion in 2021
Sales at Simon & Schuster rose 10% over 2020 to just under $1 billion ($993 million) in 2021, and operating income jumped 52% to $213 million. “It was an extraordinary year for all of our groups,” CEO Jonathan Karp told ‘PW.’
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Reed Exhibitions Saw Improvement in 2021
Following a year in which the pandemic decimated its business, Reed Exhibitions reported a 48% increase in revenue in 2021 and upped its in-person fair count to 269, from 169 in 2020.
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Online Sales Fell 1% in Q4 at Amazon
Amazon’s online sales fell 1% in the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2021, compared to record highs in the fourth quarter of 2020. Operating income for the entire company dropped 50% in the quarter.
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Higher Costs Dent Earnings Gains at HarperCollins
Earnings in HarperCollins' second quarter ended December 31, 2021, rose 3% over a year ago, while sales increased 13%. The lower profits increase was due in part “to the increase in manufacturing and freight costs exacerbated by supply chain pressures,” parent company News Corp said.
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Unit Sales of Print Books Likely to Fall in 2022
After increasing 8% in 2020 and 9% in 2021, it is unlikely that unit sales of print books will grow again in 2022, said Kristen McLean, executive director and industry analyst for NPD/BookScan Books in a recent webinar. She noted the importance of several other trends, including the influence of BookTok and the growth in manga sales.
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Steinberger Reflects on 2021, an 'Extraordinary Year' at Open Road
A little more than one month after leading an investment group that acquired Open Road Integrated Media, David Steinberger sent a companywide email discussing what he called “an extraordinary year.”
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Publishing Industry Sales Rose 12.2% in 2021, Says AAP
A strong rebound in sales in the K-12 instructional materials category and another solid year in the trade segments led to a 12.2% increase in sales for the 1,369 publishers who report data to AAP’s StatShot program.
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Publishing Stocks Rebounded in 2021
After falling 4% in 2020, the Publishers Weekly Stock Index had a strong rebound in 2021, rising 32% for the year, well ahead of the 18.7% gain posted by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with several companies seeing a reversal of fortune in the year.
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EDC Sales, Earnings Fall
Financial results from Educational Development Corp. continue to suffer from comparisons to the record highs they hit last year, although EDC said sales through the first nine months of the year are still ahead of pre-pandemic levels.
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Print Books Had a Huge Sales Year in 2021
Led by the fiction categories, unit sales of print books rose 8.9% in 2021 over 2020 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. 825.7 million print units were sold last year, a jump of nearly 68 million over 2020 and a whopping 132 million over 2019.
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Book Sales Rose in November
Sales of adult trade books rose 5.3% in November over 2020, while children’s/young adult book sales posted a 9.8% increase.
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Book Fair Improvement Boosts Scholastic in Q2
A huge increase in book fair revenue was the primary driver in lifting company sales 29% in the second quarter ended November 30, 2021, over the comparable quarter a year ago at Scholastic.
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Sales, Earnings Up in Q2 at Wiley
With all three of its operating segments posting increases, John Wiley & Sons reported that revenue for the second quarter ended October 31, 2021, rose 9% over last year, to $533 million, and operating income increased 6%, to $73.9 million.
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Publisher Sales Had Strong October
Led by the education segments, sales rose 23.1% in October over October 2020 at the 1,368 publishers that report results to AAP's StatShot program.
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B&NE Show Modest Improvement in Q2
Textbook sales were flat in the quarter ended October 30, 2021 compared to a year ago at Barnes & Noble Education and overall revenue at the company rose 5.3% over a soft back-to-school period last year.
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K-12 Segment Drives Publishing Gains in September
Sales of K-12 materials rose 35.2% in September and were up 32.7% for the first nine months of the year, offsetting declines in several other publishing areas, including adult trade. The K-12 segment was the big driver for industry sales through the first nine months of 2021, rising 32.7%. Through the January-September period, industry sales rose 12.4% at companies that report to AAP.
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Regnery Had Small Q3 Sales Gain
Regnery Publishing had a small sales increase in the third quarter, while Salem Author Services had a 27% jump in self-publishing fees, leading to a 5.6% increase in revenue, to $5.7 million, at Salem Media's publishing group.
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Indigo Sees 16% Sales Hike in Second Quarter
Indigo Books & Music reported revenue of C$238.8 million in the period ended October 2, 2021, a 16% hike over the same period in 2020. With the increase in revenue, Indigo reported net earnings in the period of C$3.5 million, compared with a net loss of C$17.5 million a year ago.
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Trade Segments Had Double-Digit Gains in August
The trade publishing segment continues to perform well in 2021, with August sales up 15.1% in the adult category and ahead 21.8% in the children’s/young adult segment at publishers that report results to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program.