MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
November 16 – November 23, 2006 Edition
HarperCollins
Income Declines,
New Media Soars
New York, NY/11/8/06—HarperCollins, the book publishing arm of News Corporation reported a $15 million decline in operating income to $55 million for its first fiscal quarter for 2007 (ending September 30, 2006), compared to the same period a year ago.
HarperCollins had 33 books on The New York Times bestseller list during the quarter (including two at #1), but sales for this quarter did not measure up to last year’s blockbusters, which included Freakonomics, YOU: The Owners Manual and The Chronicles of Narnia. This quarter’s strong sellers included U2 by U2, Zondervan’s Inspiread by the Bible Experience, Is There Really a Human Race? by Jamie Lee Curtis, and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Beatrice Letters.
HarperCollins’ lower sales are attributed to sluggish sales, and its sagging profits are due to a heavy investment in digital and global projects. Visitors to HarperCollins’ website can now “browse inside” more than 12,000 titles. The digital warehouse is growing at several hundred titles per week.
HarperCollins Publishers is one of the world’s leading English-language publishers with headquarters in New York. The company is a subsidiary of News Corporation. The publisher’s strengths are in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children’s books, mystery, romance, reference, cookbooks and spiritual titles.
News Corporation’s company-wide income before cumulative effects of accounting change increases, rose 45% to $843 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2007 (ended September 30, 2006).
In reporting the quarter’s earnings, News Corporation’s CEO Rupert Murdoch said “We have also begun to capitalize on the rapid growth oat our new media assets, where News Corporation websites now rank second in the U.S. in total pages views and fifth in unique visitors.” The company’s landmark deal with Google for textual search is expected to generate $900 million over three and a half years, signifying the company’s ability to make new media properties profitable.
