Storytel’s latest quarterly report found group revenue at Storytel at 892 million SEK, or $95.5 million, from January to March this year, up 12% over the comparable quarter in 2023. The Swedish audiobook and publishing conglomerate also saw its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) rise to 50 million SEK, from 34 million, in 2023—an increase of 50%.
"The first quarter marked another step up in our financial performance, as Storytel delivered a strong result with improved profitability and operational cash flow," Johannes Larcher, CEO of Storytel, said in a statement.
Storytel operates in 26 countries, but is strongest in the Nordic region, which accounts for about two thirds of the company's streaming revenue and 1.2 million of its 2.2 million paid subscribers. Much of the quarterly report echoed findings from the company’s annual report, published in February, including the news that Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Poland, and Turkey all saw an 25% increase in average paying subscribers.
In its Q1 results, the company hinted that some new features were on the way, and this week it announced that it will add free access to 6,000 Swedish language podcasts. Storytek also touted some of its own publications, including the Turkish audiobook release of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series and Storytel subsidary Norstedt's plans to publish the memoirs of Swedish tennis legend Björn Borg in 2025, in both print and audiobook formats. It also affirmed that it has reached a deal with rival Nexstory to distribute Storyel’s books on that platform.
Depite these improved results, issues remain for the company. Lecher has announced that he is leaving the company in the fall, after just two years on the job; Storytel is now in the process of searching for a new CEO. And an analysis by Sölve Dahlgren at Boktugg notes that the company is carrying a significant debt burden, much of it attributable to its purchase of Audiobooks.com in the U.S. Furthermore, one of the major contributions to Storytel’s improved cashflow was a 13% reduction in workforce over the period.
In all, Storytel has gone from 839 employees on average in 2021 to fewer than 540 in 2024—a loss of one third of the company’s workers in recent years. In an interview with Dagens industri in Sweden, Larecher expressed his “surprise” at the “efficiency” of the layoffs.
