For Publishers, 2018 Is Off to a Decent Start

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PG notes that the title of the OP is a classic example of damning with faint praise.

From Publishers Weekly:

The four large publicly traded consumer publishers that recently reported their financial results for the quarter ended March 31 were all able to point to some good financial news.

HarperCollins had the best results, with sales up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year and profits rising 16.2%. In a conference call discussing results, Susan Panuccio, CFO of HC parent company News Corp, said the sales gains were led by the general and Christian publishing divisions. Backlist titles did particularly well, accounting for 58% of revenue in the quarter, compared to 52% a year ago, Panuccio said. She added that the strong performance of the backlist helped to boost margins.

. . . .

Another important contributor was downloadable audiobooks. The format had strong gains in the quarter, helping to offset softness in e-book sales and leading to a 5% increase in overall digital sales at HC compared to the prior year. The company said that downloadable audio accounted for about 25% of all digital revenue in the recent period. Digital sales represented 22% of consumer revenue for the quarter—the same percentage the format accounted for in the quarter last year.

Though revenue at Lagardère publishing rose only 0.4% in the first quarter over the same period last year, sales at its U.S. subsidiary, Hachette Book Group, increased 5.4%. HBG CEO Michael Pietsch said the first-quarter gains “came from many places: #1 bestselling books by HBG house authors James Patterson, David Baldacci, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, and Brad Meltzer.”

. . . .

Lagardère said that the companywide publishing group’s revenue was affected by a negative €23 million exchange rate, which was offset by the acquisitions of Brainbow, Bookouture, Jessica Kingsley, and Summerside. The company also noted that e-books’ share of revenue fell again in the quarter, dropping from 10% in the first period of 2017 to 9.1%.

The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt trade group eked out a small sales increase in the first quarter, although its operating loss grew slightly compared to 2017’s losses. In its quarterly SEC filing, HMH attributed the sales rise to “higher licensing income along with print title sales such as the Instant Pot series and Whole30 series.” The greater loss was largely due to a change in the company’s sales mix: last year, HMH sold lots of The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984 e-books, which have higher margins than print editions.

. . . .

Bertelsmann, which owns 75% of the country’s largest trade publisher, Penguin Random House, issued only a brief quarterly update and pointed to a strong PRH bestseller performance in the first quarter. Pearson, which has a 25% stake in PRH, said the publisher was “trading in line with expectations.”

Link to the rest at Publishers Weekly

PG says that the financial performance of Big Publishing is not half-bad.

He looked up a few more examples:

“Finally, I would like to put to rest any concerns you may have about him embarrassing the Church with the scandal of an adulterous affair.  I believe him to be completely safe in this regard, as he has neither the strength of character to carry it off, nor the personal charm for the matter to become relevant.”

. . . .

“I can’t understand why people say what they do about you.”

. . . .

“It is, in my opinion, an exaggeration to suggest, as is sometimes done, that his line of thought is worthless.”

. . . .

Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer;
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.

– Alexander Pope, Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot

 

2 thoughts on “For Publishers, 2018 Is Off to a Decent Start”

  1. So, reading between the lines:

    – HarperCollins front list isn’t doing as well as the backlist, which is another way of saying new releases are underperforming. That has been going on for some three years, now. Wouldn’t be surprised to see backlist hit 80-90% of revenue in coming times. They are, after all, legacy publishers. They can survive off their legacy alone. Eventually they’ll realize they’re better off, profit-wise, without a front list. 🙂

    – Lagardere showed slight gains…by buying four publishers and rolling in their sales. Might they have shown measurable decline without them? Seems likely. Their ebook sales are impressive: at 9% of their already low market share they are well on their way to pricing themselves out of the ebook market.

    – Bertelsmann didn’t even try to spin anything. Obviously their expectations were modest and weren’t exceeded.

    – As for HMH, I’m not sure why they’re mixed in with the otheds. Other than to highlight the fade of last year’s political hysteria. They just keep on muddling on like they have for forever. They weren’t even important enough to drag into the conspiracy.

    Gotta say, those folks need better spinmeisters if they want to keep up appearances. Even cheap politicians know better than to bring up the bad news themselves.

  2. “From Publishers Weekly” – says so right at the top!

    Where we will find a positive spin no matter how badly things are really going.

    Can’t wait to sees what Mikie’s spin will look like! 😉

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