PublishersLunch
The AAP released sales numbers for January
2012, launching a significantly revised and expanded data set under the new
name StatShot. The new counts reflect data from 1,149 publishers overall across
all the sectors the AAP tracks, and provide a variety of more granular data
breakouts. Trade statistics are enhanced by the inclusion of data from multiple
major distributors, including all of Perseus's distribution lines, IPG (which
accounts for 663 publishers), and clients distributed by Random House, Simon
& Schuster, and Hachette Book Group. (Previously only 20 to 25 publishers
contributed to most of the trade statistical pool.) The University of Chicago
Press is reporting data for their clients now, and the Evangelical Christian
Publishers Association (ECPA) is reporting on behalf of 15 publishers.
The new data shows a strong January for
trade publishers, driven by lower returns for adult books and much higher
shipments of children's books, plus continued growth in adult ebooks and the
emergence of a substantive children's ebook market.
Net trade sales for the month were $451.2
million, significantly better than the $348.4 million recorded from the same
expanded group of reporting publishers a year ago. (The AAP is providing new
"comps" for 2011, showing historical data from the same expanded set
of reporting publishers, on a month-by-month basis, so that the monthly 2012
trends have a valid basis for comparison.) Gross shipments of adult trade print
books declined, however, down 5 percent, on the significant weakness in mass
market books, but net adult print sales rose 5 percent, without the big returns
from Borders a year ago. (The AAP methodology remains the same: they report
publishers' shipments, and returns.)
Adult ebook sales jumped significantly, at
$99.5 million, up from $66.6 million a year ago. The new numbers break out
children's ebook sales separately, which registered a robust $22.6 million
driven by new color devices on the market, compared to just $3.9 million a year
ago.
Total print children's sales of $101.1
million were up 58 percent over a year ago. Unlike with adult books, children's
rose primarily on stronger orders rather than a change in returns.
eBooks comprised 31 percent of all adult
trade sales of $323 million in January, and 17.6 percent of children's trade
sales of $128.2 million. Total ebook sales for the month of $122.1 million
accounted for 27 percent of overall trade sales.
We will only see with precision over time
just how much the hundreds of new publishers expand the overall numbers that
the AAP reports. The new count for January 2011 shows total trade sales of
$348.4 million--or about 11.7 percent higher than the $312 million reported
under the old method a year ago. Somewhat mysteriously, the ebook number didn't
really change--the new trade count for last January is $70.5 million (plus $2.7
million for religious publishers and $.5 million for university presses), and
the old count was $69.9 million, which at the time did include religious
publishers. This year, they have separate breakouts for religious books. Some
distributed publishers still handle their digital titles directly, so those
results would not be reflected in the revised counts.
Bertelsmann released its full-year earnings
statement for 2011, and for Random House the numbers correspond to the trend at
other large houses: Revenue fell €79 million or 4.3 percent to €1.749 billion
compared to last year, while EBIT rose 6.9 percent to €185 million,
compared to €173 million the previous year. The company also recorded
"record triple-digital-percentage" digital revenue growth and a
"surging demand" for Random House ebooks helped by the
"increasing availability of lower-priced e-reading devices and
tablets" that offset declines in print sales. (2011 was also the year
Random House switched to agency model pricing in the US.) Without reporting
actual percentages of digital revenues, ceo Markus Dohle said in a letter to
staff that "physical books...account for approximately 85 percent of our
worldwide revenues."
Dohle reassured that employees that
Random House is "one of our parent company's most dependable profit
centers." He writes, "Random House is in very good shape for the
future. We have the financial and creative resources to further develop and invest
in our business, as well as the right priorities and the right strategy in
place for an increasingly complex publishing environment."
His "top success factors for us going
forward" are "ensuring that the physical marketplace is healthy and
diversified," "champion[ing] a digital marketplace where multiple
retailers sell our books," developing their "expanding author-centric
services," and, as he has emphasized before, working "to strengthen
our direct-to-consumer connections." Within those efforts, "we're
connecting more with readers in person, through the efforts of our field sales
reps and the unique programs and promotions they are initiating with
booksellers in their local communities."
In a letter to staff obtained by the
Bookseller, Random House UK ceo Gail Rebuck said ebook sales accounted for
11 percent of net sales for the division, and that digital sales for the first
two months of 2012 were "substantially ahead" of the same point in
2011.
As part of the larger Bertelsmann earnings
report, the company announced a "long-term reshaping" plan. Chairman
and CEO of Bertelsmann AG since the beginning of the year Thomas Rabe says,
"Our primary goal is to grow the company faster, and to make it more
digital and international. We plan to achieve this with four strategic
approaches: First, by further consolidating and strengthening our portfolio.
Second, by accelerating the transformation to digital of our core businesses.
Third, by establishing new growth platforms. And fourth, by expanding into new
geographic growth regions. On this basis, we will reshape Bertelsmann over the
next five to ten years."
Bertelsmann
plans to change its legal form by the end of June from AG (a joint stock
company that is private) to SE & Co. KGaA ("an often used legal form
for businesses with a family-style ownership structure.") They say it's
designed "to document the international orientation of the Bertelsmann
group" and "secure the company’s continuity." Reuters writes the
change would allow Bertelsmann's controlling owners, the Mohn family,
"to hold sway over strategic decisions and name top managers while taking on
new shareholders with little say." But the announcement says
that "the group's ownership structure and corporate structure remain
unchanged."Bertelsmann release
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