Print Unit Sales Close July With 15% Increase (publishersweekly.com)

Total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2017 were $244.7 million, down 6.7% compared to the fourth quarter of 2016. Headwinds that impacted advertising included a soft holiday retail advertising season and continued declines in print advertising. Adjusted net income, which excludes the items above, was $3.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $53.7 million, down 15.0% compared to the fourth quarter last year. Operating expenses were down 6.1% while adjusted operating expenses, which exclude non-cash and certain other charges, were down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Click Read More below for additional information.

At outlets that report to NPD BookScan, unit sales of print books were down 1% in the week ended Dec. 3, 2017, from the similar week in 2016. This was the second consecutive week in the holiday season that sales were lower than at the same time last year; the previous week saw a 2% decline from the similar week in 2016. The only major category in which sales rose was juvenile nonfiction: units were 5% higher than in the week ended Dec. 4, 2016. Harry Potter: A Journey Through a History of Magic by the British Library remained the category’s top seller, with more than 28,000 copies sold in the week. Among books that posted solid gains in the week were Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes by Rob Elliott, which sold more than 13,000 copies to land in fifth place on the category bestsellers list, and How to Draw 101 Animals by Dan Green, which was in sixth place with almost 13,000 copies sold. Both the adult categories had lower sales than in the similar week in 2016. Click Read More below for additional information.

Total Company net sales for the three months ended October 31, 2023, increased 9.0% to a record $1.28 billion. Total Retail segment net sales increased 7.3%, with comparable Retail segment net sales increasing 5.6%. The increase in Retail segment comparable net sales was driven by high single-digit positive growth in digital channel sales and mid single-digit positive growth in retail store sales. Comparable Retail segment net sales increased 22.5% at Free People and 13.2% at Anthropologie and decreased 14.2% at Urban Outfitters. Wholesale segment net sales decreased 3.6% driven by a 3.5% decrease in Free People wholesale sales due to a decrease in sales to department stores and close out account partners. Nuuly segment net sales increased by $30.2 million primarily driven by a 68% increase in our subscribers versus the end of the prior year’s comparable quarter.