The Digital Reader

Lagardere, the parent company of  Hachette, released their quarterly financial statement and the news was not good. Revenue was down for most parts of Lagardere, and that includes a slight dip in the net income for the publishing division.

Lagardere Publishing saw a 6% drop from last year, with the one bright spot being the US, where Hachette revenue increased by 12%. At the end of December, ebooks were pegged at 10% of revenue in the UK, and 20% in the US.

Yes, US revenues increased overall, but ebook sales only increased at the same rate. What I find interesting is that past reports from Hachette have pegged ebooks at 20% and 22% of US revenues. That’s a plateau, and the US market is still growing.

In fact, we’re seeing some smaller publishers reporting meteoric growth in ebook sales. This raises the question of why Hachette isn’t seeing the same growth as everyone else.

Ideas?

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past coverage

The UK based publisher released an interim financial statement today. Business has been good but ebook sales have been lackluster. Today’s news covers Q4 2011, and Bloomsbury reported ebook sales “being up 38% year on year”. That could have been better news.

Okay I know that 38% increase over last year is a great number for most markets, but not compared to what some of the major publishers have announced.

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Simon & Schuster released their quarterly report today, and the news is both good and bad.

Print sales were down significantly – to the lowest point they’ve been in years. S&S CEO Carolyn Reidy attributed this to the closing of Borders, but the weak economy probably also had an effect IMO. But ebook sales more than made up for the difference. Simon & Schuster reported seeing a 1% increase in revenue over the same quarter last year.

Ebook sales are now counting for 17% of revenue at Simon & Schuster. That’s up slightly from last quarter, and it’s also about double what S&S reported last year.

These new numbers from S&S are in line with their major competitors, with Hachette reported ebook sales having tripled to around 20%, Wiley reported that ebook sales nearly tripled last quarter, and Penguin reporting a doubling in ebook sales just yesterday. I guess this means that Price Fix 6 aren’t hurting themselves with the higher prices, much to my surprise.

Pearson released an interim progress report today and while it’s still rather vague, they do reveal a few interesting details.

Profits are up across the board, and are estimated to be at 14%. Sales are also up 6% over the first 9 months of 2010. Person also noted that ebook sales had more than doubled over last years figures.

Then again, this isn’t actually new news. Penguin also reported back in July that ebook sales had 14% of revenues and were up 128% over last year. Today’s news isn’t nearly as impressive as that fourteen percent.

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The academic publisher John Wiley & Sons released their quarterly statements today, and the last 3 months saw a phenomenal growth in ebooks.

The data is from the first quarter of their fiscal year 2012, and it covers  July, June, and (I’m assuming) May. Income from ebooks totaled $11,000,000, which is around $7 million more that the same period last year.

Yes, ebook sales nearly tripled. They now account for 11% of revenue for the professional/trade unit at Wiley (vs. 4% in the same quarter of last year). What’s even more surprising is that Wiley reported seeing strong sales growth at both Amazon and iBooks. Yes, iBooks. I guess Apple’s efforts to cripple their ebook competition must be working,

Okay, this isn’t so amazing anymore considering that Pearson, S&S, and Hachette have all reported similarly fantastic growth. Penguin’s most recent numbers peg ebooks at 14% of revenue, Simon & Schuster have reported 15%, and Hachette reported ebook sales having tripled to around 20%.

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The French media conglomerate Lagardère released their financial docs today, and it looks like ebooks are about to become the tail that wags the dog.

Business was generally good for Lagardère, but the ebook biz has been fantastic. Hachette reported that ebooks were now 20% of sales in the US and 8% of sales in the UK. That’s double the figures for the first half of last year.

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