Some Publishing Numbers in this Economic Downturn

(this is taken directly from Publisher's Lunch)


The Publishing Ticker: How Bad Is It? How are publishing-related entities faring relative the overall market as stock prices continue to fall? Fair warning: this story is not for the faint of heart, so skip down if you need to.

Below are some comparative results, looking over the past month, and in particular at the six days of trading ending with yesterday's market close. In this corner of the world, debt-free Barnes & Noble has been the most resilient so far, and among publishers and their parent companies, Pearson appears to have held up the best (though among somewhat smaller companies Bloomsbury is the star performer). As a benchmark, the S&P 500 is down 27.5 percent since its peak within that month on September 19, dropping 21.5 percent in the past 6 days. Since we're looking at some UK-traded companies, note that the FTSE 100 have given up over 20 percent in the past month, dropping 13 percent in the past 6 sessions ending yesterday.

Barnes & Noble is off 19 percent from their high on September 19 of 29.06, beginning their tumble after S&P cut their rating on the stock to "sell." But the stock is down only 10 percent in the last 6 trading sessions.

Scholastic had peaked on September 19, and is down 26 percent since then. The company has slid only 13 percent for the last 6 trading sessions.

John Wiley is off 25 percent from its September 11 high of 43.64, losing 19 percent in the past 6 sessions. Of the group the company is suffering the most in today's trading however, down over 8 percent in the first hour.

Borders is off 44 percent from their high on September 11 of 7.80, and down 35 percent in the last 6 trading sessions.

Books-a-Million has fallen even further, giving up 49 percent since peaking at 7.20 on September 11, shedding 25 percent in the past 6 days.

Among book publishers with publicly-traded parent companies, Pearson's London shares peaked on September 12 at 697.50 pence and have dropped 22 percent since then, but they have given up only 8 percent in the last 6 sessions.

Hachette parent Lagardere is down 31.5 percent from its high of 38.22 on September 12, giving up almost 19 percent in the last 6 days.

Harper's owners News Corp. are down 36 percent since peaking on September 12, dropping 24 percent in the past 6 sessions.

Simon & Schuster parent CBS is down 40 percent since September 11, giving up almost 30 percent in the past 6 days.

But, as noted above, Bloomsbury has been quite resilient, losing just 3.5 percent over the past month and actually gaining 8 percent in the past six sessions.

A little further afield, Amazon peaked at $81 a share on September 19, losing 31 percent since then. The company has declined 19.5 percent in the past 6 days. Company News: Lulu Layoffs; Harper Studio UK; and More Lulu.com is laying off 24 employees, almost a quarter of their workforce of 100. The reductions include recently-hired president Bryce Boothby Jr. and European vp Cristel Lee Leed. The company plans to relocate its headquarters from Morrisville, NC to Raleigh within the next few months. CEO Bob Young tells NewMediaAge "with the credit and capital markets frozen solid Lulu couldn't continue burning through money at its previous pace. We're very disappointed.... we were forced into a position of having to cut costs."

Bob Miller's Harper Studio has made an agreement with Harper UK to provide for direct publication in the UK, Australia and New Zealand of nearly all the books signed by the start-up so far. Studio is working with Harper UK nonfiction publisher Carole Tonkinson and editorial director Susanna Abbott. The same piece, Miller admits to The Bookseller's Gayle Feldman that his intention of selling on a non-returnable basis "might fail" though he says "it's too eary to tell."