Walliams helps HarperCollins to second quarter revenue rise

Sales of David Walliams’ Bad Dad helped revenue at HarperCollins grow by $3 million year-on-year in the second quarter to $469 million.

Sales of Ree Drummond’s The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Come and Get It! were also credited with helping to achieve the growth, along with “higher backlist sales at the children’s books division”.

The book publishing arm of News Corp also benefitted from an $8 million positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations, according to the earnings report released on Thursday (8th February).

Digital sales meanwhile grew by 2% compared to the year before, accounting for 16% of consumer revenues for the quarter, mainly driven by downloadable audiobook sales.

Altogether the gains helped HarperCollins EBITDA rise 7% to $5 million year-on-year.

For News Corp as a whole, sales were $2.18 billion, up from $2.12 billion a year ago. Net loss for the quarter was $66 million, compared to $219 million a year earlier.