Given HarperCollins’ parent company News Corp is investing heavily in AI, we can therefore reasonably assume HarperCollins is going down that same route, but quietly.
During the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023, Publishers Weekly reminds us, HarperCollins saw sales drop 10% and profits plummet 45%, but this year sales are up 6% to $2.09 billion.
Gains in the year, writes Jim Milliot, “were led by sales of digital audiobooks and e-books, which offset lower sales of print books,” amounting to 23% of consumer revenues, with both ebooks and audio performing well, although of course audio was the star du jour, up 18% on the year, thanks in no small part to Spotify.
HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray had previously predicted audiobook revenue would eclipse ebook revenue, but that’s not so much a prediction as a statement of the obvious, with the audiobook format being promoted on all fronts, a price-war raging between Audible and Spotify, and audiobook prices significantly higher than ebooks.
At which point it’s important to keep in mind that audiobooks are much more expensive to produce than ebooks, and while selling ten audiobooks may bring much more revenue than selling ten ebooks, that does not necessarily equate to a more profitable deal.
Milliott’s post at PW has plenty more details, for those who get their kicks from EBIDTA numbers, CEOs talking about “painful decisions” (for which read redundancy notices) and internal corporate shuffles.
Here just to note that AI appears not to be mentioned at all, at a time when most publishing industry CEOs are falling over themselves to reassure their precious authors they are the only thing that matters in life, and they will be protected for forever and a day from that nasty AI demon.
Given HarperCollins’ parent company News Corp is investing heavily in AI, we can therefore reasonably assume HarperCollins is going down that same route, but quietly.
This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsletter
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