USPS Reports Steady Service Performance Improvements Across All Mail Categories

Simon & Schuster was the only one of the country’s four largest trade publishers to show an improved profit margin in the first half of 2023 compared to last year. In reporting Penguin Random House’s first-half results last week, where sales rose 9.5% but profits were up less than 1%, interim global CEO Nihar Malaviya told employees the small earnings increase “should come as no surprise, as industry inflationary cost pressures and increased costs across our businesses have continued to impact us.” HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray noted earlier that in addition to higher manufacturing, freight, and distribution costs, the industry has faced macroeconomic headwinds that he hasn’t seen since the Great Recession of 2008. Profits fell 19.7% at Lagardère Publishing despite a 2.5% increase in six-month sales. In addition to inflationary pressures, Lagardère cited increased costs incurred on “transformation projects in France” as the reason for the earnings decline.

In an email to customers, Barnes & Noble acknowledged that it was made aware "of a cybersecurity attack" on October 10, adding that it resulted "in unauthorized and unlawful access to certain Barnes & Noble corporate systems.” The email said that while payment card and other financial data were not compromised by the attack, systems affected by the hack “did contain your email address and, if supplied by you, your billing and shipping address and telephone number. We currently have no evidence of the exposure of any of this data, but we cannot at this stage rule out the possibility.”

In its full-year results for the 52-week period ended March 2022, the postal operator achieved revenue of £12.71bn, up 0.6% on the £12.64bn it achieved a year earlier. This included sales from its overseas parcels business GLS. On a reported basis, the company recorded a pre-tax profit of £662m, down 8.8% on last year, and an operating profit of £577m, down 5.6%. Its adjusted operating profit was up 8% at £758m while its adjusted pre-tax profit figure was up 6.5% at £707m. The business said that while the pandemic had resulted in an increase in parcel volumes, some of the tailwinds it experienced in the last year have subsided, and while it has seen a recovery in letter volumes, “parcel volumes and shifts in mix continue to be volatile”.