HarperCollins revenue up $16m in first quarter

HarperCollins’ global revenue was up $16m (£12.4m) year-on-year in the last quarter (4%), rising from $358m (£276.7m) to $374m (£288m). Parent company News Corp said the rise was mostly due to strong sales of Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, Hillbilly Elegy by J D Vance and Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth as well as “the continued expansion of HarperCollins’ global footprint”.

Segment EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) increased by $1 million (£773,000), or 3% to $37m (£28.6m) compared to the previous year. Meanwhile digital sales increased 7% year-on-year and represented 22% of consumer revenues for the quarter. For the nine-month period ending March 31st, the publisher was up 19% on its EBITDA in 2016 in the same period, showing a rise from $135m (£104m) to $161m (£124m).

UK results were not broken out separately.

HarperCollins' parent company News Corp cited the “continued strong performance” of its book publishing arm in its quarterly report. The multinational contains businesses across a range of media which also includes news and information services such as The Times, digital real estate services, cable network programming in Australia, and pay-TV distribution in Australia. Headquartered in New York, its activities are mostly conducted in the US, Australia and the UK.