It is expected that Penguin Random House will complete the acquisition of Simon & Schuster in the second quarter; HarperCollins completed the purchase of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s commercial division on June 30. Illustration: Finance images. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media posted $42.7 million in revenue for the first quarter, up 12% year-over-year. Currently, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has closed its New York office pending the completion of the sale. For its part, HarperCollins posted a 45% increase in profits in the first quarter, with revenue up 19% from the first three months of 2020. Revenue came in at $490 million, while EBITDA hit $80 million. Susan Panuccio, chief financial officer of News Corp (parent company of HarperCollins), said the increase in sales was driven by the general commercial and children’s books industry in the US and UK. Panuccio revealed that printed books accounted for 62% of sales in the quarter. In terms of format, sales of e-books increased by 38% and audiobooks increased by 42%. In a short financial update, Bertelsmann (the parent company of Penguin Random House) said that Penguin Random House was one of several divisions of the company that posted double-digit growth in the first quarter compared to the same period of 2020. Simon & Schuster is currently decommissioned, pending acquisition completion. Simon & Schuster’s parent company, Viacom CBS, had $185 million in revenue, up 8.8% from the first quarter of 2020. Jonathan Karp – CEO of Viacom CBS – reported that the biggest increase came from the international division. publisher economy, where revenue increased 21%. In which, sales of audio books increased sharply (17%). Some outstanding books in 2020. Photo: Nytimes. Hachette Book Group is one of the 5 largest trade publishers in the US. In the first quarter, Hachette’s revenue grew 9.1% year-on-year. Michael Pietsch, Hachette CEO, said the increase was driven by sales of hardcover books. Hachette’s distribution business, he noted, has seen double-digit growth. Hachette’s total revenue reached 509 million euros (about 619 million dollars). In addition to the increase in book sales in the US, Hachette’s sales also increased in France and the UK, offsetting declines in the Spanish and Latin American markets. Hachette’s digital books performed well in the first quarter, but e-books only accounted for 9% of total sales. The share of audiobook sales fell to 4.6% from 5.9% in the first three months of 2020. Despite the growth compared to 2020, US publishing units are cautious about developments in the coming time. As more professions reopen, consumers have more options besides reading.

Accordingly, Pan Macmillan bought the global copyright (except for Vietnamese in the Vietnamese market) and sold the copyright to 5 countries including the US, Korea, China, Norway and Turkey. Private Wild Chang – Bear copyrighted by Kim Dong Publishing House and was released in March 2020 in Vietnam. The copyright representative of Kim Dong Publishing House said that it only took the two sides about 6 months to negotiate and come to an agreement to come up with suitable terms. The book Chang Wild – The Bear features more than 120 hand-painted paintings entirely in watercolor by artist Jeet Zdung. Photo: K.D. Wild Chang – Bear is the first volume in a series of comics by wildlife conservationist Trang Nguyen. The book tells the journey of Chang – a small girl with a burning dream and a desire to protect the survival of wild animals that are being pushed to the brink of extinction due to the bad effects of humans. . From meeting Sorya, a sun bear who was successfully rescued by the Bear Rescue Center from wildlife traffickers, Chang made up his mind to bring Sorya back to nature. Author Trang Nguyen shared: “This is a comic book about wildlife conservation that I and my artist friend were very passionate about, cherished for more than two years before starting to draw. In order to draw this first storybook, I “send” my artist friend to stay at the bear rescue center of the Free the Bears organization to observe, learn and most importantly feel about bears. rescued from farms that keep bears for bile, and even tiny cubs a few weeks old that are kidnapped and sold as pets.” And the result of more than two months of that experience is 120 vivid and realistic hand-painted watercolor paintings by artist Jeet Zdung. This book, not only tells the story of one person, but it also moves people’s hearts about the life of all species, the importance of nature, warns of the unpredictable harms of deforestation, killing of animals. wild animals. Wild Chang – Bear will be published in the UK next September with the English title Saving Sorya: Chang and the Sun Bear. The English version of Chang Wild – Bear will be published this September in the UK. Photo: K.D. The second book copyrighted by Pan Macmillan from the author Trang Nguyen is Saving H’non: Chang and the Elephants will be released in 2022. The series, based on true stories, follows the grown-up Chang rescuing an elephant that has been carrying passengers for 50 years. Russel McLean, a representative of Pan Macmillan, shared on the publisher’s website that he was excited to buy the rights to these two works by Trang Nguyen and Jeet Dzung. The stories about the little girl Chang will suit all young readers, animal lovers, those who love to explore and are ready for adventure into the natural world. Pan Macmillan is one of the major publishers in the UK as well as in the world, operating in 70 countries. Two books Wild Chang will be published under Pan Macmillan’s Macmillan Children’s Books in the UK, and Penguin Random House’s Dial Books in the US.

By acquiring Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, HarperCollins will be better able to compete in the publishing industry. Photo: Richard Drew / Associated Press. Robert Thomson – CEO of News Corp – said welcome: “We welcome the talented team of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to HarperCollins, especially at a time when so many people in many places are reading and listening to books. “. “We look forward to new and exciting opportunities as we chart a stronger future together,” said Brian Murray, President and CEO of HarperCollins. He thinks that merging two publishing companies, each with a long list of literary works, will be the focus of team cohesion. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt owns a list of more than 7,000 titles and has many important works in the lifestyle and children’s segments. Many famous books by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt help to generate high profits such as: Curious George, The Polar Express, Little Blue Truck and The Little Prince … HarperCollins will acquire the English rights to JRR Tolkien’s novels and films, including Hobbit guy and The Lord of the Rings . Illustration by JRR Tolkien in the upcoming edition of The Lord of the Rings. Photo: The Tolkien Estate/Harper Collins. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s audiobook business is also thriving, which is expected to boost HarperCollins’ audiobook sales. Before that, the sheet New York Times commented that by acquiring Houghton Mifflin, HarperCollins will be better able to compete as the publishing industry is being dominated by “big players”. In recent years, the book business has witnessed the consolidation of a number of large publishing units. In 2020, ViacomCBS agreed to sell Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House for more than $2 billion. The deal attracted the attention of antitrust regulators and raised concerns among booksellers, authors and agents. The deal of these two book giants is not yet completed. HarperCollins is the second largest publisher of consumer books in the world. In the first quarter of the year, HarperCollins saw revenue growth of 19% year over year. Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing operations in 17 countries. This unit has more than 120 publishing brands around the world. Each year, this unit publishes about 10,000 books, print and digital catalogs more than 200,000 works.