About:
The Mondadori Group is the leading book publisher in Italy and the third largest player in the consumer magazine segment in France. Mondadori operates through publishing houses such as Edizioni Mondadori, Einaudi, Piemme, Sperling & Kupfer, and Electa. Its magazine titles include Panorama and Donna moderna.
Employing a staff of 3664, and generating revenues of 1.51 billion Euros in 2011, the Mondadori group is lead by Marina Berlusconi. Fininvest S.p.A. is the largest shareholder, with 50.14%
Mondadori claims 26.5 % of the Italian book market, covering fiction and nonfiction in the Trade division; text books, art, and illustrated books are published by the Educational division.
The Direct & Retail division of Mondadori (results are not incorporated in this report) operates a network of 628 stores throughout Italy.
Mondadori was founded in 190. Arnoldo Mondadori Editore shares have been listed on the Milan stock exchange since 1982.
Key company developments in 2011 & 1st half year 2012
Financial:
Group revenues have been flat at Mondadori S.p.A. since 2009, after a significant drop in the crisis year of 2008, while revenues and profits from book publishing experienced a continuous downward slide. Profits for the book division were not released for 2011, but are defined as being flat against 2010.
With an overall 26% share in the Italian book market, 23.3% of Mondadori's revenue is from book sales and 15.7 % from Direct & Retail. The group's remaining revenue comes from magazines (26.53% in Italy, 19.4% in France); advertising (13 %); and other activities (data based on 2010).
The Direct & Retail division (whose results are not included in this report) currently includes over 600 stores across Italy, with a goal stated to further extend the branch network and increase brand recognition by opening additional stores, notably in small towns.
Ownership, mergers & acquisition, internal organization:
In 2010, the book division was restructured to operate through two divisions: Trade, overseen by Riccardo Cavallero, includes all fiction and non-fiction books published by Mondadori, Einaudi, Piemme e Sperling&Kupfer; Educational, managed by Antonio Porro, groups internally-conceived publications such as text books, art, and illustrated books.
International:
Branded as Random House Mondadori and managed by Núria Cabutí , Mondadori operates a 50:50 joint venture with Bertelsman in Spain, which is the country’s third largest publishing house. Since 2001, imprints have included Areté, Beascoa, Debate, Debolsillo, Electa, Galaxia Gutenberg, Grijalbo, Lumen, Mondadori, Montena, Plaza & Janés, Rosa dels Vents, and Sudamericana. Random House Mondadori is divided into three geographic divisions: Spain; South America (which includes locations in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay), and North America, with a presence in Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia.
Digital:
In 2011, Mondadori launched its own ebook distribution platform and released ca. 3000 e-books (after starting with 1200 e-books in 2010), with its corporate sales platform accounting for one quarter of all sales. The year-end holiday season saw a peek in up to 4000 downloads a day. Mondadori plans to digitize the entire cataloge of 15,000 titles by 2014. Meanwhile 90% of the education catalogue (1,300 titles) are already available in digital formats.
Bestselling authors & titles:
Mondadori published 2,730 titles in 2011, of which 2,168 were in trade (against 2,118 in 2010), with 60.5 million copies produed (+4.6% against 2010). Mondadori claims to have 43 of the top 100 bestsellers of 2012.
A new quality paperback format for bestselling titles, branded NumeriPrimi, has been introduced with 2 million copies sold in 2011.
Bestselling titles include Le prime luci del mattino, by Fabio Volo, Nessuno si salva da solo, by Margaret Mazzantini, and Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson.
Key points for analysis & conclusions:
Mondadori is the largest book publisher in Italy, and has an international presence in the Spanish language through Random House Mondadori, its joint venture with Bertelsmann.
The group's overall performance as well as the books division have shown a downward development over recent years, triggered by 2008's economic crisis.
Since 2010, Mondadori has exponentially developed its presence in the e-book and digital textbook markets, by launching its own ebook platform and moving to digitize its entire catalogue.
Earlier developments:
2010:
The Mondadori book division, headed by Gian Arturo Ferrari, claimed a market share of 27.1% in 2010 (28,1% in 2009) of the Italian book market and hence to be the “undisputed leader in the Italian book market.
Publishing brands include Einaudi, Sperling & Kupfer, Mondadori Education, releasing 2,379 new titles in 2010 (2,787 new titles in 2006), and selling 51.4 million copies in 2010 (56.4 million in 2006). Revenues at Mondadori were 132.9 million EUR in 2010 (2009: 140.7 million EUR); 48,8 million EUR for Einaudi (49.8 million EUR); and 46.6 million EUR for Piemme (43.9 million EUR).
Revenues of 279.7 million EUR in the Direct & Retail division have not been included in this ranking.
Best performing titles in 2010 included Canale Mussolini, by Antonio Pennacchi, winner of the 2010 Premio Strega (300,000 copies sold); and the Italian translation of Ken Follett’s Fall of the Giants (600,000 copies sold).
In October 2010, Mondadori launched its e-book catalogue with 1,200 in epub format (of which 400 were new titles, and 800 backlist).
2008
Revenues from book publishing declined by 2.4% against 2007, while revenues declined group-wide by 7.1%. The Book Division had an EBITDA of 19.1% in 2008.
Trade (-1,2% in revenues) and education (-1,1% in revenues) were relatively stable, while Art & exhibition decreased by 16.6%. Only distribution showed an increase of 5.1%.
Books by Roberto Saviano and Khaled Hosseini drove the strong sales revenues.
Note: Figures are based on sales generated in calendar 2011 or—for corporations with a fiscal year—from fiscal 2011. Data are from publicly available sources and include sales of books, journals, and digital products. Because publishing data were unavailable, Pannini and Disney/Hyperion are excluded from the rankings. The listing and publisher profiles were compiled by international publishing consultant Rudiger Wischenbart under the aegis of Livres Hebdo.
