Murray Looks for Improvement after a Difficult Fiscal 2023 For HC

After completing its purchase of Rodale Inc. last week, the Hearst Corp., which announced the deal in October, quickly turned around and sold Rodale's trade book publishing assets to Penguin Random House. Terms of the acquisition, which involves more than 2,000 backlist titles and 100 frontlist books, were not disclosed. With the purchase, Rodale Books’ adult nonfiction titles will be released under the Rodale Books imprint. It will become part of the Crown Publishing Group, and will be an imprint of its Illustrated and Lifestyle division, comprised of the Harmony, Ten Speed Press, and Clarkson Potter publishing programs, overseen by Aaron Wehner, senior v-p of the unit’s imprints. Diana Baroni, v-p and editorial director of Harmony Books, will oversee Rodale Books. Click Read More below for additional information.

For the third quarter ended October 28, 2023, net sales decreased 6.8 percent versus the same period in fiscal 2022. Gross merchandise value ("GMV") decreased 7.1 percent. Third quarter net sales include a 270 basis point negative impact from the wind-down of Canadian operations. Anniversary Sale timing, with one week shifting from the second quarter to the third quarter, had a positive impact of approximately 200 basis points on net sales compared with 2022. Excluding the impacts of the Canadian wind-down and Anniversary Sale timing shift, net sales would have been down approximately 6 percent. During the quarter, Nordstrom banner net sales decreased 9.4 percent and GMV decreased 9.8 percent. Net sales for Nordstrom Rack decreased 1.8 percent. During the third quarter, active grew by double-digits, and beauty and accessories were up by low single-digits, versus 2022.

Nordstrom, Inc. reported a third quarter net loss of $20 million for the quarter ended October 29, 2022. For the third quarter, net sales decreased 2.9 percent versus the same period in fiscal 2021 and gross merchandise value decreased 2.5 percent. Anniversary Sale timing, with one week shifting from the third quarter to the second quarter, had a negative impact of approximately 200 basis points on net sales compared with 2021. During the quarter, Nordstrom banner net sales decreased 3.4 percent, which included a negative impact of approximately 300 basis points from Anniversary Sale timing, and GMV decreased 2.9 percent. Net sales for Nordstrom Rack decreased 1.9 percent.