S&S global sales up 8% in fourth quarter

Simon & Schuster saw global sales rise by 8% in the fourth quarter of 2015 to $233m (£160m), however e-book sales were down, following a wider trend across the larger publishing houses.

The CBS Corporation released its fourth quarter and full year results yesterday evening (11th February), revealing that its publishing arm Simon & Schuster saw an 8% sales increase from $215 to $233m, primarily down to the growth in print book sales.

The fourth quarter boost meant the company ended its full year with sales of $780m (£536.5m), up 0.25% from $778m (£535m) a year earlier.

However, e-book sales accounted for just 21% of total publishing revenues in the fourth quarter, down from the 24% they accounted for in the same quarter a year earlier. This follows a wider trend across the other publishing houses, with Hachette yesterday reporting that lower e-book sales had contributed to Hachette UK sales dropping 6.7% in the fourth quarter.

Operating income for S&S global was $34m (£23m) up significantly, by 36% from the same period a year ago, which the company said “primarily reflecting the higher revenues”.

Sales at parent company CBS were up 6% in the quarter to $3.91bn and full year 2015 revenues were $13.89bn, up 1% from $13.81bn in 2014.

CBS did not break out international results, including S&S UK, Australia and India.

Yesterday the company reported it would be publishing Bruce Springsteen's autobiography worldwide this September.