Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Various and Sundry Publishing News

This morning, both Publishers Marketplace (PM) and Publishers Weekly (PW) had interesting items.

PW reported that bookstore sales rose 1.2% in May to $1.11 billion. This was the first increase in four months and brought the year-to-date sales ending May 30 to $6.29 billion. This compares with $6.28 billion for the same period last year.

When you compare these results with the rest of the retail segment, you realize bookstore sales were practically flat. May retail sales were up 9.5% while YTD sales for the period ending May were up 7.9%.

This follows on the heels of the Reuters report last Thursday that the Borders Group changed their expectations for their second quarter loss. The original projection had been for a loss of between $.10 to $.20 per share. The revised loss is projected to be between $.28 and $.32 per share.

In other news:

"In its first significant move into the digital publishing business, Ingram Industries has acquired the electronic publishing company Vital Source Technologies. Based in Raleigh, N.C., Vital Source develops software that allows publishers to publish book content in a variety of electronic formats." (PW)

PM adds, " Vital Source specializes in delivering electronic educational content delivery in specialized areas including dental, nursing and law."

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