In last hurrah, Random House books record profits

Thanks to bestsellers like Dan Brown's Inferno and Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In, Random House Inc. boasted record profits for the first half of 2013, parent company Bertelsmann reported Friday in what will be the last earnings announcement for the publisher as a stand-alone unit. Sales, however, dipped slightly.Random House merged with Penguin on July 1 to become the Manhattan-based global publishing giant Penguin Random House.Compared to the same period a year ago, Random House revenue fell 3% to 915 million euros or $1.2 billion. Operating income rose 4% to 117 million euros or $155 million. A Penguin Random spokesman credited the increase in profits to "cost discipline" and strong sales growth overseas in ebooks, which have higher margins than print editions.The dip in sales revenue reflected the comparison with the unusually strong first half of 2012, when the Fifty Shades trilogy was topping bestseller lists. The "mommy porn" novels padded this year's sales as well, however, selling an additional 5 million copies in both print and digital editions.As a portion of worldwide sales, ebooks fell to 20% of the total from 22% a year ago, largely due to the drop-off from Fifty Shades, according to the spokesman.Penguin also recently reported solid results, with a 6% jump in sales and a 14% spike in profits for the first half. Penguin's parent company Pearson owns 47% of the merged company, with Bertelsmann owning the rest."We can all take pride in what we have... Continue reading at 'Crains New York'

[ Crains New York | 2013-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]

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