Wiley’s ongoing restructuring and streamlining efforts began to bear some fruit in the quarter ended January 31, 2024. Although the company reported a 6% decline in total sales and a $21 million increase in its operating loss, those figures include results from the divisions it has sold or is in the process of selling. Wiley’s ongoing business—held in its Research and Learning groups—had modest improvement in the quarter.
The Learning group had the best showing, with sales up 2%, to $146 million. The academic division drove the gains with sales, led by strong sales of digital courseware and content, increasing 5% and offsetting a 3% decline in sales in the professional publishing unit. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization) rose 16% due to the higher sales and from savings from the restructuring.
The Research group had more mixed results. Revenue rose 1%, to $256 million, but EBITDA fell 1% due to higher editorial and marketing costs and the continuing impact of the reorganization of its Hindawi unit. (Last year, Wiley suspended Hindawi’s open access publishing operations after its discovered a number of “compromised" articles; the company is in the processing of “sunsetting” the Hindawi brand and merging its operations into other Wiley groups).
The results of the two core groups—as well as the expectations of signing a content rights deal for training AI models in the current quarter—were good enough for Wiley to increase its adjusted EBITDA forecast for the fiscal year ending April 30 to $335 million to $355 million. Wiley also now expects revenue to come in toward the mid-to-high end of its $1.58 billion to $1.63 billion range.
The reorganization has been a difficult one, with Brian Napack stepping down as CEO and the company eliminating 103 positions in its New Jersey office. Wiley has also either completed the sale of the companies it plans to divest or has reached agreements for their sale.
"As we finish out the year, we’re increasingly confident in our underlying momentum and recovery in Research and continued outperformance in Learning," said Matthew Kissner, who replaced Napack as CEO on an interim basis, in a prepared statement. Kissner added that the company continues to expect “material performance and profit improvement in fiscal 2025 and 2026."
