Second quarter sales for the period ended June 30, 2019, at Salem Media’s publishing division rose 3.7% over the comparable period a year ago, to $5.6 million. Net loss in the group fell slightly, to $440,000.
The major contributor to the sales increase was Regnery Publishing, where sales were up $400,000, according to Salem’s quarterly filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). A spokesperson for Regnery said the company’s top seller in the quarter was Dennis Prager's second book in his Rational Bible series, The Rational Bible: Genesis, which had higher week-one sales than the first book in the series, The Rational Bible: Exodus.
Regnery also saw a 231% increase in bulk sales in the quarter and a jump of 407% in subrights revenue. The publisher said the increase was largely due “to the ongoing international success of George Gilder's Life After Google.” Sales of e-books were flat.
The group’s self-publishing unit, Salem Author Services, had a revenue decline due mainly to a drop in book sales, which Salem attributed to a decline in the signing of new authors. It also had a small dip in fees.
For the first six months of 2019, revenue in Salem’s publishing division was $9.8 million, down 9.3% from the first six months of 2018. The net loss rose to $1.4 million from $1.0 million in the first half of 2018.
