HarperCollins audio sales up 18%, overall sales up 6%

HarperCollins parent company News Corp has announced its fourth quarter and annual results.

The company reported that its book publishing division saw sales rise 6% for the 2024 fiscal year to US$2.09 billion (A$3.18b), while EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) rose 61%, to US$269 million ($A409.48m). ‘The publisher had a particular strong fourth quarter, with sales soaring 15% and earnings skyrocketing 256%, marking [its] best fourth quarter since 2018,’ reported Publishers Weekly (PW).

HarperCollins’s gains in the year were led by sales of digital audiobooks and ebooks, which offset lower sales of print books, according to PW. ‘For the year, digital sales represented 23% of consumer revenues, up from 22% in fiscal 2023, according to [the publisher’s] parent company, News Corp,’ said PW, adding that, while ebook sales were up, ‘audiobooks were the big digital driver, increasing 18% in the year and 28% in the final quarter, helped by sales through Spotify’.

PW reported that the annual results do not include the ‘booming sales’ of Republican vice-presidential candidate J D Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy, which sold 877,000 copies in July.

Category: International news