Gap Exiting Malls, to Shutter 350 Stores by 2024 (mytotalretail.com)

Summary: +GAAP Results: Revenue of $431 million (+2%) and EPS of $0.29 (+$0.23) +Adjusted Results (at constant currency): Revenue +2% to $431 million, EBITDA +42% to $82 million, and EPS +124% to $0.42 +Research Publishing & Platforms (at constant currency): Revenue +6% and Adjusted EBITDA +19% +Shareholder Return: Wiley among select group with 27 consecutive years of annual dividend increases

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy delivered the following remarks today to the National Association of Secretaries of State in a conference call regarding ongoing election preparations: “Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for the opportunity to join you today. We are less than seven weeks from Election Day. The Postal Service is ready and committed to handle whatever volume of election mail it receives. Our number one priority is to deliver election mail on-time and within the Postal Service’s well-established standards. Let me underscore that the Postal Service has more than enough capacity, including collection boxes and processing equipment, to handle all election mail this year, which is predicted to amount to less than 2% of total mail volume from mid-September to Election Day. In terms of the recent mailer, as you know the intent of our nationwide mailer was to craft one common message to encourage voters to inform themselves on how to vote by mail effectively, and to avoid providing guidance on state-specific rules and regulations. The concern that some of you have voiced about the mailer underscores why we set out to create one message and not state-specific guidance. I should note, several of you have also voiced appreciation about our educational effort to the public."

In the first half of 2020, unit sales of print books surprised many in the industry by posting a 2.9% increase over the same period in 2019 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan, overcoming a slump in sales in early spring following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Print sales finished 2020 up 8.2% over 2019, and that strong performance continued into 2021, with units jumping 18.5% in the first six months over the comparable period in 2020. With the exception of the juvenile nonfiction category, all the major publishing categories had double-digit sales increases in the first half of the year. Backlist had the strongest gains, up 21.4%, but frontlist sales were also solid, rising 12.4%. The increase in the first half of 2021 was led by the adult fiction category, where units rose 30.7%. The top seller in the category was Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds, which sold more than 558,000 copies since its release in early February (see “2021 Bestselling Print Books [So Far],” p. 6). The other top sellers in adult fiction were a mix of new releases and backlist titles.