You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
The Random House Group's turnover for 2008 is understood to have reached just under £295m, showing a rise of almost 6% on 2007 (£279m). However, operating profit dropped over 11% to £41.5m (£46.7m in 2007) before taking into account bad debt. Despite the drop, return on sale was close to 14%.
In a letter to staff in March, RHG chair and c.e.o. Gail Rebuck said bad debt from the collapse of EUK had been "significant". Thirty-three jobs went at Random House in April, with Rebuck citing "recessionary challenge".
She declined to comment on the 2008 figures but said RHG had given a "very solid" performance in 2008, which saw considerable investment. This included the full launch costs of new imprints Bodley Head, Square Peg and Preface, a joint venture with Struik in South Africa, the first full year of Virgin, and the launch of the DFC comic (which closed in March 2009). Rebuck said Random had also seen "massive" investment in e-books, with 1,000 titles up and running by the end of 2008, plus digital infrastructure and marketing.
Highlights of 2008 included Christmas bestsellers from Dawn French, Paul O'Grady and Nigella Lawson and a trio of prizes—the Orange (Rose Tremain's The Road Home), the Costa (A L Kennedy's Day) and the Galaxy Book of the Year (Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach).