Lagardère global publishing revenue up 2.2%

Lagardère, the parent company of Hachette, has reported its publishing revenue for 2023 came in at €2.8 billion (A$4.7b) for 2023, up 2.2% on 2022 as reported and up 1.9% on a ‘like for like’ basis, which takes in adjustments for companies consolidated or divested by the group, and adjustments on the basis of exchange rates.

Lagardère said the annual result came in ‘a generally subdued environment’, with publishing earnings before interest and tax down €1 million (A$1.6m) to €301 million (A$502m).

The results for the group’s publishing businesses in various territories were mixed. In the company’s home market, France, revenue ‘outperformed the market’ to grow 6.1%. Revenue was up by the same amount in the UK, while revenue was down by 6.8% at Hachette Book Group in the US. In Spain/Latin America, revenue grew by 17.9%, benefitting from national curriculum reform, as well as a new Asterix album in Spain and dictionary sales in Mexico. The company did not break out the Australia and New Zealand region in its results.

In the UK, Lagardère reported growth was spurred in particular by several successful adult fiction and nonfiction titles, including the first two volumes of Rebecca Yarros’ The Empyrean trilogy and The Housemaid and The Housemaid’s Secret by Freida McFadden. Revenue growth was also driven by ‘impressive backlist sales on the back of the success of Ana Huang’s Twisted saga and Matthew Perry’s autobiography, published at the end of 2022’. However, without an equivalent to Heartstopper, sales in the young adult segment were down.

In the US, Lagardère said its publishing sales decline ‘was due in particular to Grand Central Publishing, which had benefited from exceptional sales of Colleen Hoover’s Verity in 2022, and to Little, Brown Adult, which had been buoyed by the success of Run, Rose, Run, a novel co-written by Dolly Parton and James Patterson’.

For the global business, Lagardère reported that in 2023, digital audiobooks accounted for 4.5% of total publishing revenue, up from 4.3% in 2022, while ebooks accounted for 7.8% of the division’s total revenue, stable compared to 2022.

Category: International news