Bookstores Need More than Hope. They Need Sales. And Soon. (publishersweekly.com)

The United States Postal Service reported new delivery performance metrics showing the average time to deliver a mailpiece across the postal network was 2.7 days in the first five weeks of the fiscal year second quarter. Throughout January, winter storms across the nation created hazardous road conditions and impacted the air transportation network resulting in delays for middle mile mail and package transit. The Postal Service continues to implement mitigation plans to move mail and packages effectively across the nation. Additional second quarter service performance scores covering Jan.1 through Feb. 11 included: *First-Class Mail: 86.1 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 3 percentage points from the fiscal first quarter. *Marketing Mail: 90.9 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 1.3 percentage points from the fiscal first quarter. *Periodicals: 79.5 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 1.4 percentage points from the fiscal first quarter.

“Bloomsbury achieved its highest ever results with sales up 24% to £230.1 million and profits up 40% to £26.7 million. Sales were up 41% and profits up 70% from two years ago. Both the Consumer and Non-Consumer divisions gave outstanding and resilient performances, highlighting Bloomsbury’s unique strength in combining general and academic publishing. The Consumer division revenue grew by 25%, continuing the momentum of last year, and achieved a 25% increase in profit before tax and highlighted items1 to £17.8 million. The Non-Consumer division saw 23% revenue growth and a 68% increase in profit before tax and highlighted items1 to £9.1 million. Consumer revenue was 53% higher and Non-Consumer revenue 24% higher than two years ago. Bloomsbury Digital Resources (“BDR”) outperformed the target set six years ago of £15 million of sales and £5 million of profit, with sales of £18.6 million, up 50% on last year, and profit of £6.8 million, up £3.9 million on last year. Following this success, we have set ambitious new growth targets for BDR. Supporting our strong organic growth, we made three acquisitions during the year of ABC-CLIO LLC, the Red Globe Press list and Head of Zeus Limited.

*Strong revenue growth of 5.2% with strength across segments *eCommerce up 15% globally *GAAP EPS of $0.17; Adjusted EPS of $1.531 *Consolidated revenue of $160.8 billion, up 5.2%, or 4.3% in constant currency1. *Consolidated operating income was up $3.5 billion, or 130.1%, adjusted operating income up 3.0%1.