October Bookstore Sales Up
Bookstore sales rose 6.9% in October 2015 over last October, according to preliminary estimates released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau. Sales hit $747 million in the month, up from $699 million last October. The October gain follows a solid 6.7% sales increase in September. Also, for the first 10 months of the year, bookstore sales totaled $9 billion, a 1.2% increase over the same period last year.
BAM Goes Private
The purchase of Books-A-Million by the family of BAM executive chairman Clyde Anderson has been completed. The deal, which will see the retailer return to being a private company with no more stock available for purchase, was approved by company shareholders on December 8. Clyde Anderson will continue to serve as executive chairman and as a BAM director while Terry Finley will continue to serve as CEO.
Playster Debuts
Playster, the digital subscription service offering access to a variety of media content, launched last week; it has been in beta since 2014. The site offers access to books, music, TV, films, and video games, and it went live with a library of more than 250,000 books and 50,000 audiobooks. The site currently has partnerships with such Big Five houses as Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins.
Earnings Down at B&N Education
The addition of new college stores offset a decline in comparable store sales resulting in a 0.6% increase in revenue at Barnes & Noble Education, the company reported last week when it issued its second-quarter results for fiscal 2016. The period ended on October 31, and the numbers were presented in comparison to last year’s second quarter. Net income at BNE fell 9.4%, to $33.4 million. Total revenue in the quarter was $755.9 million.
Bad Quarter For Wiley
Sales and earnings fell at John Wiley in the second quarter ended Oct. 31, 2015, compared to results from the same period last year. Revenue dropped 9%, to $433.4 million, and net income decreased 19%, to $43.6 million. Among the factors in the decline was “substantially weaker demand for college textbooks and custom education material,” Wiley president and CEO Mark Allin said.
IPG Head Curt Matthews to Retire
An era has ended at Chicago Review Press Inc., the parent company of Independent Publishers Group (IPG), Chicago Review Press (CRP), and Triumph Books: the company announced last week that CEO Curt Matthews, who founded CRP more than 40 years ago, is retiring as of December 31. Joe Matthews, Curt’s son, who has been with the company for 10 years in various capacities and has managed all operations of the business as its COO since 2013, will officially take over as CEO in January.
