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John Makinson, chief executive of the Penguin Group, has stressed that the changes announced at the publisher yesterday (6th July), which include 100 jobs cut, are not about the company's current performance.
Nielsen BookScan figures show that Penguin's UK retail sales in the first quarter have dropped 7.1%, with its market share down to 9.1%, compared with 10% in 2008. Penguin itself has seen sales fall just 2.7%, while DK is down 16.5% and Rough Guides down 30%. More">http://www.thebookseller.com/news/90454-home-sales-down-by-65-according-... widely, numbers released today (7th July) from Publisher's Association Sales Monitor showed UK publishers' home sales down by 6.5% in the first quarter, a drop even larger than Nielsen BookScan's reported first quarter decline of 1.7%.
Makinson told The Bookseller: "The market is alright, it's not a disaster, this really isn't about how we are trading. Travel is down but has now stabilised, reference has had a poor year, but Penguin's businesses have been publishing well and that area of the market has been pretty resilient."
Makinson added: "What we are trying to distinguish always is what is the signal we are receiving about longer term trends, and what is the noise around the current recession. We've been working to try and understand particularly the longer term issues, and the announcements are a response to that."
Makinson pointed to Penguin's "strong" autumn schedule, and added that he expected to see a bounce-back in areas such as travel-guide publishing.