Dummies Drives Wiley

by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 3/14/2005

Led by strong sales of its Dummies series, revenue in John Wiley & Sons' professional/trade segment rose 9% in the third quarter ended January 31, 2005, to $92 million. Other titles that did well in the period included J.K. Lasser Tax Guide 2005, which has more than 300,000 copies in print; Webster's New World Dictionary; Shut Up, Stop Whining and Get a Life; and Mentored by a Millionaire.

Total revenue for the entire company rose 7% in the quarter, to $258.4 million, and net income rose 5%, to $32.8 million.

Sales in Wiley's scientific, technical and medical segment increased 2% in the period, to $43 million, with sales of both books and journals up. Sales at Wiley InterScience were also up. Sales in the higher education division fell 3%, to $45 million, which the company attributed to price resistance among students and soft sales in engineering and computer science.

In its international operations, sales to Europe rose 13%, to $66 million. During the quarter, Wiley made three small acquisitions in its European division, which will add about $2 million to sales annually. In Asia, Australia and Canada, sales were up 14%, with the strongest growth in the STM book program.

For the nine-month period, net income was flat at $79.1 million, while revenue was up 6%, to $732.4 million.