Costs Cut into Profits at Big Publishers (publishersweekly.com)

Four Maine newspapers--The Free Press, The Courier-Gazette, Camden Herald and The Republican—are being consolidated into a single title called the The Midcoast Villager. The combined product will be published by Reade Brower, with Kathleen Fleury Capetta serving as co-publisher. “This change is not a cost-saving move; in fact, it is an investment in creating a more robust, impactful product for our region — because we truly believe the health and well-being of our communities is at stake,” Fleury Capetta writes.

Sales of print books continued to ride a hot streak into February with units jumping 25.7% in the first week of the month over the first week of February 2020 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The increase was the highest yet this year, and unit sales of print books were up 22.1% through February 6, 2021. Once again, all six major categories had double-digit sales increases over 2020, with sales in the young adult segments skyrocketing; fiction was up 55.7%, and the small nonfiction category rose 67.3%. The latter category benefited from the release of Brave by Sissy Goff, which landed in second place in its first week on sale and led to a 158% jump in sales in the social situations/family/health sub-category. The jump in fiction sales was spurred by the release of two new titles: Star Wars, The High Republic: Into the Dark by Claudia Gray topped the category bestseller list, selling more than 17,000 copies in its first week on sale, while Scott Cawthon’s The Twisted Ones sold over 9,000 copies.

McGraw Hill announced that it has entered into a transaction support agreement to address its near-term debt maturities. The contemplated transaction will extend all material debt maturities through late 2024. “Following a strong performance in the critically important back-to-school period, we are pleased to announce a comprehensive refinancing that addresses all near-term debt maturities”, said Garet Guthrie, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. ”The comprehensive refinancing is underpinned by the confidence that lenders and investors have in our business and will allow us to continue to execute on our digital growth strategy and to unlock the potential of learners around the world.”