Nordstrom Acquires 2 Digital Retail Startups

Sales of adult trade books rose 3.4% in the first quarter of 2017, over the comparable period in 2016, according to the latest figures released by the Association of American Publishers' StatShot program. The adult trade segment was one of three major publishing categories to see an increase in the first three months of the year, over the same time frame in 2016. The higher educational course materials segment experienced the largest gain in the period, with sales up 24.3%. Within adult trade, hardcover sales jumped 18.1% in the quarter, offsetting declines in the paperback formats. Downloadable audio had another strong period, with sales rising 23.1% in the quarter. But e-book sales continued to drop, falling 4.5% in the three-month period. Click Read More below for additional details.

No matter which way you look at it, sales of mass market paperbacks have been in steady decline since 2017. NPD BookScan data shows that unit sales fell 31.5% in 2021 compared to 2017, while the Association of American Publishers put the decline in dollar sales at a more disturbing 42.7% in 2020. Both data sets show more declines occurring in 2022. To be sure, the mass market paperback format has experienced ups and downs in the past. The last time PW wrote about the prospects for mass market paperbacks, in October 2014, the format was trying to recover from the shock it suffered due to the explosion of cheap e-books, especially in such important areas as romance and science fiction and fantasy. (Asked last week, during the DOJ’s trial to prevent PRH from acquiring S&S, whether he had made reductions in title output following the Random House–Penguin merger in 2013, PRH CEO Markus Dohle pointed to adjusting the number of mass market paperbacks published by Berkley/NAL in response to the flood of 99¢ and $1.99 self-published e-books that hit the market, luring away readers of genre fiction.)

The Postal Regulatory Commission released its Financial Analysis report, an in-depth evaluation of the overall financial position of the United States Postal Service in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022. With this year’s Financial Analysis report, the Commission introduces a fully accessible dashboard with downloadable data that provides a visual snapshot of key components of its analysis, including balance sheet and mail volume trends from 2007 to 2022. The dashboard is located on the Commission’s website, www.prc.gov. The enactment of the Postal Service Reform Act on April 6, 2022, resulted in significant changes to the Postal Service’s retirement obligations by canceling the outstanding $57 billion retiree health benefit liability, the annual payments for the retiree health benefits normal costs, and Retiree Health Benefit Fund amortization payments. In FY 2022, the Postal Service recorded a net operating loss of $0.5 billion, a $2.2 billion improvement over FY 2021. Furthermore, the Postal Service’s operating revenue increased by approximately $1.6 billion compared to FY 2021. This increase in revenue was primarily driven by First-Class Mail and USPS Marketing Mail rate increases. Competitive revenue declined from FY 2021 when package volumes were higher because of the pandemic-related surge in e-commerce, which continues to slow as the economy recovers.