Industry Stocks Slipped in '05

After two years of solid gains, the Publishers Weekly Stock Index slid 1.5% in 2005. The stock prices of nine companies rose last year, while prices at 13 companies declined. The drop in the PWSI was slightly higher than the 0.6% decline recorded by the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2005; the Nasdaq increased 1.4% last year.

No particular segment in the industry did markedly better or worse than others in the year. Among bookstore chains, for example, the stock price of Barnes & Noble jumped 32.2%, the highest gain of all companies tracked on the PWSI, while the stock price of rival Borders Group fell 14.6%. Books-A-Million's stock price inched up 0.7%. Hastings Entertainment, which posted the largest stock price increase in 2004, had a 33.8% decline last year, as sales and rentals of videogames have been particularly weak.

Two publishers with significant stakes in the educational and professional markets saw solid gains in their stock price in 2005: the stock price of McGraw-Hill Cos. went up 12.8%, while John Wiley's stock price rose 12.1%. (MHC had a 2-for-1 stock split in the year.) Other educational and professional publishers' stocks didn't perform as well; Reed Elsevier plc was up only 1.1%, while Pearson's stock slipped 2.4%.

MediaBay's stock price had the worst performance in the year, losing 85% of its value, although a one-for-six reverse stock split kept the price level up. Advanced Marketing Services' delisting from the New York Stock Exchange and its inability to file its long-delayed annual reports contributed to a 64.6% plunge in AMS's stock price last year. Audible's stock price never fully recovered from a steep decline early in 2005, when the company warned that new investments would soften earnings for the year.

Industry Stocks: 2005 Performance