Borders Sales Disappoint, Loss Soars; Liquidity Issues Arise

Borders third quarter results, released just after the market closed Thursday afternoon, provided little sign that the company is turning around as total revenue fell 17.6%, to $470.9 million and comparable store sales dropped 12.6%.

Mixed Second Quarter for Wiley

Second quarter revenue at John Wiley for the period ended October 31 fell 1%, to $442 million, although net income increased 16%, to $53.6 million. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, revenue was up 1%. Revenue was up in Wiley’s Higher Education segment, but down in the Professional/Trade and Scientific/Technical/Medical/Scholarly categories.

E-Book Growth Slows, Still Up 112% in October

Facing some harder comparisons, e-book sales posted their slowest growth rates in 2010 in October. Still, sales jumped 112.4%, to $40.7 million, from the 14 publishers who reported results to the AAP's monthly sales program.

Industry Stocks: November Performances

Following several months of gains, both the Publishers Weekly Stock Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell back slightly in November (although the Dow recovered all of its November losses on the first day of trading in December, rising 249 points).

Digital the Difference at B&N

Sales trends at Barnes & Noble are taking on a familiar pattern: flat to declining print book sales at the trade stores offset in part by the sale of Nook devices, children's products, and other nonbook merchandise, and booming sales at Barnes&Noble.com led by sales of physical books and e-content.

Results Improve at Continuum

The academic publisher Continuum, which has offices in New York and London, reported its first positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) in four years in for fiscal 2010 ended June 30. The publisher had EBITDA of 256,000 pounds compared to negative EBITDA of 740,000 pounds in fiscal 2009.

Led by Printing, Courier Returns to Profitability

Led by its manufacturing business, total sales rose 3% at Courier Corp. for the fiscal year ended September 25, to $257.1 million and the company returned to profitability, posting net income of $7.1 million compared to a loss of $3.1 million in fiscal 2009. The fiscal 2009 loss included one-time charges of $20.4 million, while the fiscal 2010 results included a $4.7 million impairment charge associated with Creative Homeowner.

Print Declines Offset Digital Gains

As e-books become a bigger part of the publishing sales mix, the key question for the book industry is whether the entire revenue pie will grow or shrink. If e-book sales merely displace sales of print books, total revenue will likely decline because of the generally lower prices of e-books. If e-books increase unit sales, however, revenue could grow.

Langenscheidt Closing its U.S. Division

In one of the most vivid examples yet of digital's impact on traditional print businesses, the German-based Langenscheidt Publishing Group is closing Langenscheidt Publishers Inc., its U.S. division. Best known for its maps, atlases, travel guides and language reference materials, Langenscheidt has been struggling with declining sales in all areas for several years.

E-Books Bright Spot in Bleak September

As sales in the traditional trade segments plunged in September, e-book sales jumped 158.1%, according to the monthly sales estimates released by the Association of American Publishers. Sales for the 14 publishers that reported e-book sales hit $39.9 million in the month, and were up 188.4% in the first nine months of the year to $304.6 million. In contrast, sales in the three adult trade segments all fell by more than double digits.

Guideposts Buys Ellie Claire/Summerside Press

Guideposts has acquired Ellie Claire Gift & Paper Expressions in a deal that also includes Ellie Claire's Summerside Press Christian book imprint. Summerside has a backlist of 84 titles in fiction and nonfiction, while Ellie Claire produces a range of items for the gift market.

Lagardere Feels Full Impact of Meyer; HBG Digital Sales at 9%

The absence of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight titles made its most significant impact yet this year on Lagardere Publishing in the third quarter as sales fell about 7% in the period, to 634 million euros. The decline in third quarter sales dropped nine months revenue by 5%, to 1.61 billion euros. E-book sales remained strong, accounting for 9% of Hachette Book Group USA's sales in the nine months.

Third-Quarter Scorecard

Sales Down, But Earnings Up at S&S

Despite a 5.5% decline in sales, adjusted operating income at Simon & Schuster rose 10.9% in the third quarter, to $29.5 million. Revenue in the period fell to $217.7 million. For the first nine months of the year, earnings jumped over 42%, to $46.7 million, despite a 2.4% decline in sales to $559.1 million. S&S CEO Carolyn Reidy credited the strong earnings improvement to a variety of factors, among them "cost containment."

Earnings Rise at S&S Despite Sales Decline

Despite a 5.5% decline in sales, adjusted operating income at Simon & Schuster rose 10.9% in the third quarter, to $29.5 million. Revenue in the period fell to $217.7 million.

Second Quarter Dip at Educational Development Corp.

With sales in its home business division falling 9.6%, to $3.0 million, in the second quarter ended August 31, total revenue at Educational Development Corp. fell 4.2%, to $5.7 million and earnings dipped to $190,200 from $225,400 in the comparable quarter in fiscal 2010. The drop in sales in the home unit was attributed to declines in home party, direct, and online sales. Sales in the publishing group rose 2.5%, to $2.7 million, led by higher sales to smaller retail stores.

HarperCollins Sales Fall

It took a while following its acquisition of Dow Jones Co., but in its first quarter for fiscal 2011, News Corp. has lumped HarperCollins into a group with integrated marketing services (supermarket inserts) and the newspaper and information segment. The official News release makes no mention of how HarperCollins performed in the period, although News Corp.'s filing with the SEC said sales at Harper were lower in the quarter "because of fewer new releases."

U.S. Hurts Harlequin, Though Digital Sales Jump 73%

A weak U.S. dollar and economy had a negative impact on Harlequin's third quarter results with retail sales in North America down, offsetting gains in direct-to-consumer and overseas sales. Overall, Harlequin's revenue fell 4.1%, to C$117.5 million ($118 million), although operating profits inched up to C$23.0 million from C$22.9 million. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, sales and earnings would have both increased by about C$1.4 million.

Barnes & Noble Amends Poison Pill

With the vote on its shareholder's right plan scheduled for November 17, the Barnes & Noble board of directors has amended the so-called poison pill to limit the amount of new shares controlled by the Riggio family. Under the changes, the board would not be able to make any additional equity grants to Len Riggio, Steve Riggio and their immediate family members without triggering the provisions in the rights plan.

Scholastic to Repurchase Over 5 Million Shares

Scholastic reported this morning that based on preliminary results it expects to purchase 5,231,349 common shares, at a price of $30.00 per share for a total cost of $156.9 million under a Dutch auction announced in late September.