TODAY'S NEWS

Profits Bounce Back at HarperCollins
By Jim Milliot
After a difficult fiscal 2009, which ended June 30, HarperCollins reported a big jump in operating profit for the first quarter ended September 30, though sales slipped slightly. Profits in the period rose to $20 million from $3 million in the comparable period in fiscal 2009, while total revenue fell 1.5%, to $310 million. Excluding currency fluctuations, revenue would have been up by about 2%. HC CEO Brian Murray said he was “very happy” with the quarter, noting that HC publishers “did a good job of publishing into a difficult retail environment.”

On the sales side, the U.S. children’s group had a solid quarter with a number of titles performing well, led by hardcover and paperback sales of Where the Wild Things Are and The Vampire Diaries. “The children’s and teen areas have held up well,” Murray said. Sales in the American adult group benefited from a number of hardcovers that have moved into trade paperback, including The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and Freakonomics. Sales of e-books remain strong in the U.S., Murray said, and account for about 4% of adult group revenue. Zondervan is “on plan” Murray said, noting that the Christian market remains challenging. Read on »

Courier Corp. Reports Loss for Fiscal 2009
By Jim Milliot
With sales down in both its publishing and printing businesses, Courier Corp. reported an 11.1% decline in revenue for the fiscal year ended September 26, with sales falling to $248.8 million. The company had a net loss of $3.1 million in fiscal 2009 compared to a loss of $370,000 in fiscal 2008. Results in both years had one-time charges, including $4.8 million in restructuring costs in the last year during which Courier reduced its total workforce by 12%. Read on »

Hachette Book Group Drives Gains at Lagardère

Lagardère Publishing was the lone bright spot for parent company Lagardère SCA for the nine-month period ended September 30, with total revenue up 8.3%, to €1.69 million, or a rise of 8.8% on a like-for-like basis. Sales rose 5.1% in the third quarter on a like-for-like basis. Sales of all of Lagardère fell 3.7% in the nine months.

In the publishing segment, U.S.-based Hachette Book Group continued to post good results, with third quarter sales up 15% with strong sales of Senator Edward Kennedy’s True Compass, Uwem Akpan’s Say You're One Of Them, and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers augmenting sales of Stephenie Meyer titles, as growth in that series, which began to explode last July, slowed somewhat this summer. Read on »

Weiss to St. Martin's
By Lynn Andriani
Veteran publishing exec Dan Weiss has a new job as publisher at large at St. Martin’s, reporting to Matthew Shear, senior v-p and publisher of the house’s paperback and consumer reference groups. Weiss will work on developing content for Gen Y readers—“emerging adults who are navigating career, love and family in a 24/7 connected world,” explained Shear. Weiss told PW he is open to pursuing projects both electronically and in print. He said Gen Y readers are “strikingly different from previous ones, both in their consumption and creation of content and media.” Read on »

Holt Wins Auction for New Elizabeth Kolbert Book

Henry Holt executive editor Gillian Blake has won a hotly contested auction for New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert's new book, The Sixth Extinction. Blake beat out eight other houses for the book, which will be expanded from the author's May 2009 New Yorker piece of the same name. In the book, Kolbert looks at mass extinctions throughout history and, as in her 2006 title Field Notes from a Catastrophe (Bloomsbury), offers a sobering look at what could be an outcome of current ecological trends. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

The PW Morning Report: Thursday, November 5, 2009
Publishing news from across the Web: Obama Books in U.K.; Holiday E-Book Hopes; McSweeney’s Newspaper; Palin’s Book Tour; Utah Univ. Press Goes Online; Looks at 2010 Books. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Sapphire; Weekends at Bellevue; In a Cheesemaker's Kitchen
Yesterday, NPR's Morning Edition talked to Sapphire, author of Push: A Novel (Vintage, 978-0679766759, $13; RH Audio abridged CD, $15) about her technique of teaching illiterate students. The movie Precious, based on the book, opens in select theaters tomorrow. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Stine in Harlem
Goosebumps and Fear Street author R.L. Stine visited PS 161 in Harlem, New York City, last week to celebrate Halloween by reading scary stories to students. At the event, the one millionth book was donated to children in need across the country through KPMG LLP’s Family for Literacy program from First Book, which provides new books to children from low-income families. Submit your pictures here »