eBooks and children’s books helped HarperCollins have a profitable fiscal 2011 year. The News Corps-owned publisher recorded a profitable quarter and exceeded its plan for the year.
Publishers Marketplace has more: “They say the children’s division enjoyed ‘its second best ever’ year. eBook sales were ‘approximately 12 percent of sales in the US’ for the full fiscal year. Last quarter, for that period alone, Harper said ebooks comprised 19 percent of US sales and 11 percent of worldwide sales.”
NewsCorps released its fiscal 2011 numbers late yesterday afternoon. Historically they have broken out HarperCollins’ numbers, but this year the company did not break out income for book publishing specifically, instead reporting on its entire publishing business, which includes newspapers. This publishing division had a full year segment operating income of $864 million, a huge growth compared to the $467 million reported a year ago.