Penguin Random House’s wide-ranging restructuring efforts appear to be paying off. Parent company Bertelsmann reported that sales in the first half of 2024 rose 8.5%, to €2.28 billion (about $2.53 billion at current exchange rates), while operating EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) increased 13%, to €291 million (about $324 million).
Bertelsmann attributed the overall improvement to gains in both frontlist and backlist books, higher audiobook sales, a good performance by Random House Publisher Services, solid sales at Sourcebooks—in which PRH has increased its majority position)—and the January acquisition of Hay House, which added €35 million to PRH revenue. (PRH paid €85 million for Hay House.)
In his letter to employees, PRH CEO Nihar Malaviya reviewed the numbers, noting that PRH sold nearly 35 million more books in the first half of this year than during the same period last year and that, at the same time, expenses related to author compensation increased by €63 million. And while costs increased €145 million, PRH’s was still able to improve its first half operating margin to 12.8%, from 12.3% a year ago.
Malaviya said that employees should be “especially proud” of the results, which he attributed to “many, many books across our list in multiple categories selling more copies rather than relying on the performance of just a handful of standout titles. We want to continue on this successful path, a path that enables us to invest in the books as well as in the talent required to support acquisitions and publications.” (Last year, PRH’s first half sales were driven by sales of Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, which sold about 5 million copies in the first six months of 2023. Earlier this week, PRH said it was releasing the trade paperback edition of the book at the end of October.)
Malaviya remains optimistic on the future of books and the future of publishing. “In most of the countries where we operate, the book market remains stable, and we are outperforming the overall industry,” he wrote, reiterating that even in this digital world, “books matter more than ever.” That being the case, Malaviya promised that PRH would continue its fight against book banning in the U.S.; the publisher has been a party to multiple lawsuits over book banning laws to date, in addition to maintaining a book banning resource site, among other initiatives.
According to Bertelsmann’s report, PRH’s bestselling fiction title for the first half was First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston, and its bestselling nonfiction work was Atomic Habits by James Clear, which was also its bestselling backlist title for the period. Taylor Swift: A Little Golden Books Biography by Wendy Loggia also posted solid sales. And as always, Dr. Seuss remained popular, selling more than 5.5 million copies in the first half of the year.
PRH US had a good first half, with sales up over the comparable period in 2023, Bertelsmann reported. Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial also recorded an increase in revenues in the first half of the year compared to the previous year. Penguin Random House UK, in what the company characterized as a challenging marketplace, maintained its market share at the level of the first half of 2023, while Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe and DK recorded slightly lower revenues.
