Despite bad economy, Harlequin has good year
With all this talk of doom and gloom surrounding the economy nowadays, it’s always nice to read some good news for a change – especially if that good news is in the publishing industry.
According to this Publishers Weekly article, Harlequin did have a pretty good year:
Harlequin was a bright spot for parent company Torstar in 2008. Revenue at the romance publisher rose 2.2%, to C$472.9 million ($379 million), while operating profit increased 11.2% to C$67.4 million. Sales in the company’s North American retail and Overseas segments were up in the year, offsetting declines in the North American direct-to-consumer segment. Harlequin also had a slight benefit from the strengthening of the U.S. dollar.
The article also points to strong ebook sales as well:
The company also saw higher sales of print and digital books over the Internet. A highlight in the Overseas market was Harlequin’s deal with the Japanese SoftBank Corp. to distribute digital manga content on cell phones and Internet distribution sites. Sales from this operation countered a drop in sales of traditional books.
The emphasis in bold is mine. That’s pretty cool that ebooks offset slumping print book sales! But it also doesn’t surprise me, especially in Japan, where it appears they are light years ahead of the U.S. when it comes to the consumption of digital content.
The lesson in all this, I believe, is that it is possible for publishers to pull through with modest gains, even during an especially bad recession.
In the future, I wonder how ebooks will change the dynamics of the publishing industry during hard times like this. Your thoughts?
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