‘Parade’ Magazine Will Close Print Edition In November (mediapost.com)

Driven by strong sales from a host of new titles, unit sales of print books jumped 24.8% in the week ended Aug. 8, 2020, over the comparable week in 2019, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The biggest gain came in the young adult fiction segment, where unit sales skyrocketed 168.8% over the week ended Aug. 10, 2019. The category received a huge boost from the release of Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun, which sold more than 524,000 copies in its first week. The juvenile fiction segment had an 18.8% gain over 2019, led by a new Jeff Kinney title, Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure, which sold nearly 46,000 copies in its first week. Two new releases drove up sales in the adult nonfiction category 23.1% over 2019.

*First quarter revenues were $2.50 billion, a 1% increase compared to $2.48 billion in the prior year, driven by growth at the Book Publishing and Dow Jones segments *Net income in the quarter was $58 million, compared to net income of $66 million in the prior year *First quarter Total Segment EBITDA was $364 million, compared to $350 million in the prior year *In the quarter, reported EPS were $0.05 as compared to $0.07 in the prior year. *Within the Dow Jones segment, professional information business revenues rose 14% and helped to underpin 10% Segment EBITDA growth and the highest first quarter profit margins since News Corp’s acquisition in 2007 *REA Group posted strong revenue growth driven by the residential business, which benefited from a double digit yield increase and improving listing volumes in Australia *Book Publishing revenues grew 8%, while Segment EBITDA increased 67%, driven by higher book sales combined with improved returns

UPS announced that it expects to hire over 100,000 seasonal employees to support the anticipated annual increase in package volume that will begin in October 2020 and continue through January 2021. “We’re preparing for a record peak holiday season. The COVID-19 pandemic has made our services more important than ever,” said Charlene Thomas, Chief Human Resources Officer. “We plan to hire over 100,000 people for UPS’s seasonal jobs, and anticipate a large number will move into permanent roles after the holidays. At a time when millions of Americans are looking for work, these jobs are an opportunity to start a new career with UPS.”