You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Latest figures from Simon & Schuster show the downturn is biting hard. Operating profits tumbled 58.2% year on year from $14.6m to $6.1m in the second quarter of 2009, while total revenue slipped from $186m to $181.4m.
Profits for the first half of 2009 total $4m against $29.2m for the first half of 2008. Revenues for the same periods slipped from $387.6 to $343m.
S&S attributed the drop in profits to higher author royalties, lower licensing and distribution earnings and a $2.2 million charge tied to a reduction in employees.
During the first half of the year S&S in the US carried out restructuring in its children’s division following the appointment of Jon Anderson as executive vice-president and publisher, and relocated its Howard Books division to Nashville which also resulted in some redundancies; some cuts
were also made in production.
The figures, released as part of parent company CBS' results, include the UK publishing operation.