Publishers Weekly - March 28, 2016

News

EBIT rose by € 1 million in 2015 over 2014 in Lagardere’s publishing group, while revenue rose 10.1% ( 1.7% when extraordinary items are excluded, such as the impact of foreign exchange). The company’s U.S. subsidiary, Hachette Book

SOURCE: NIELSEN BOOKSCAN AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. NIELSEN BOOKSCAN’S U.S. CONSUMER MARKE T PANEL COVERS APPROXIMATELY 80% OF THE PRINT BOOK MARKET AND CONTINUES TO GRO W. Unit sales of print books rose 9% in the week ended Mar. 20, 2016, compared to the similar week in 2015, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Since some grocery chain retailers were unable to report sales for the week, total sales and sales through the mass merchandiser channel skewed lower than normal. The absence of data from the grocers also had a significant negative effect on sales reporting of mass market paperbacks, since that format is popular at those stores. With Easter coming up on March 27, the juvenile categories had a strong sales week: unit sales in juvenile nonfiction were up 24% over the similar week in 2015, and fiction sales were ahead 14%. Four Easter books and two religion titles were among the top 10 titles in juvenile nonfiction. Patricia Pingry landed two books on the bestsellers list, in the fourth and fifth spots. Her Story of Easter and The Easter Story sold about 11,500 and 8,000 copies, respectively, in the week. In juvenile fiction, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs jumped up to first place, selling more than 20,000 copies. Happy Easter, Mouse by Laura Joffe Numeroff sold more than 18,000 copies in the week and Peppa’s Easter Egg Hunt sold more than 12,000 copies, putting them in third and seventh place, respectively, on the juvenile fiction bestsellers list. Unit sales in adult fiction fell 5% compared to the week ended Mar. 22, 2015, although two new hardcovers by bestselling authors headed the category bestsellers list. Private Paris by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan was #1, selling more than 30,000 copies, and Danielle Steel’s Property of a Noble Woman was #2, selling more than 24,000 copies.

MAR. 22, MAR. 20, CHGE CHGE 2015 2016* WEEK YTD

Adult Non;ction 4,091 4,611 13% 12% Adult Fiction 2,332 2,220 -5 - 2 Juvenile Non;ction 937 1,160 24 14 Juvenile Fiction 3,008 3,429 14 5

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format

MAR. 22, MAR. 20, CHGE CHGE
2015 2016* WEEK YTD
Hardcover 2,738 3,020 10% 7%
Trade Paperback 5,785 6,644 15 9
Mass Market Paperback 1,320 953 - 28 - 9
Board Books 659 872 32 20
Audio 78 61 - 22 - 14
Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel
MAR. 22, MAR. 20, CHGE CHGE
2015 2016* WEEK YTD
Total 10,741 11,761 9% 7%
Mass Merch./Other** 1,935 1,981 4 - 4
Retail & Club 8,806 9,781 11 9

*TO TALS FOR 2016 INCLUDE UNITS SOLD THROUGH FAMILY CHRISTIAN STORES. NO SALES THROUGH FAMILY CHRISTIAN ARE INCLUDED IN 2015.

**SEVERAL GROCERY CHAIN RETAILERS WERE NO T ABLE TO REPORT SALES FOR THE WEEK ENDED MAR. 20, 2016.

Group, finished the year with a small revenue decline of 0.3%. According to Lagardere, HBG had a “disappointing” profit performance, which it attributed to lower e-book sales. Like S&S, HBG said lower e-book sales had been largely offset by gains in sales of print books last year. HBG represented 25% of Lagardere publishing overall revenue (about $600 million) up from 24% in 2014. Revenue at HBG will certainly grow in 2016 thanks in part to its purchase of the publishing business of Perseus Books Group which is due to close at the end of March.

EBITDA fell 13.8% in 2015 at HarperCollins and with it the publisher’s margin dropped to 11.4% from 13.7% in 2014. HC completed its acquisition of Harlequin on Aug. 1, 2014, which helped lift revenue in 2015 by 3.6%. Sales in the second half of calendar 2015 (HC operates on a fiscal year ending June 30), were down 2.3% as HC faced difficult comparisons to the last six months of 2014, when the Divergent series and American Sniper were huge hits. E-book sales also softened in the second half of 2015, but print sales were strong over the 2015 holiday period, CEO Brian Murray said.

The HMH trade division had a tough 2015, as adjusted EBITDA fell 39.4%. HMH attributed the decline in earnings to higher costs, including higher royalty costs, which HMH said reflected a change in “product mix.” The revenue gain was led by higher sales of frontlist cooking titles, offset by prior year strong sales of titles such as the bestselling What If? and The Giver. —Jim Milliot