May Bookstore Sales Jumped 130% (publisahersweekly.com)

The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) issued its Annual Compliance Determination (ACD), a mandated assessment of the U.S. Postal Service’s compliance with pricing and service performance requirements in fiscal year 2017 (FY 2017). While the Commission acknowledges some areas of improvement, it identifies several compliance issues related to workshare discounts, noncompensatory Market Dominant products, Competitive products, service performance, and continued cost and service problems with flat-shaped mail (flats). Workshare Discounts: The Commission identified 42 workshare discounts with compliance issues. Out of the 42, 20 of the discounts did not comply with section 3622(e). No action by the Commission was required for 7 of the 20 workshare discounts because price changes aligned the discounts with avoided costs or the Postal Service eliminated the discount. Thirteen workshare discounts remained out of compliance prompting the Commission to direct the Postal Service to either align workshare discounts with avoided costs in the next Market Dominant price adjustment or specify an applicable statutory exception. Click Read More below for additional information.

"In 2023, we made excellent progress executing on our strategy to drive our digital transformation, resulting in total digital revenues exceeding 41% of total revenues in the fourth quarter, and amounting to nearly $1.1 billion for the year. Over the past year, we’ve expanded our digital audience, improved engagement, grown the monetization of our audience, and driven significantly improved financial results over the prior year. Our digital-only subscription revenues surpassed $150 million in 2023, with total digital-only average revenue per user reaching a new high. Also, our partnership strategy increased our overall digital monetization, and importantly, we expect to generate $20 million in high margin revenue from our partnerships in 2024," said Michael Reed, Gannett Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer. "In 2023, we achieved full year growth in both Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, representing an important change in trajectory compared to last year's declines. We also remained focused on improving our capital structure and, with over $140 million in debt repayments in 2023, we were able to significantly reduce our leverage during the year. As these results show, we are building momentum toward a sustainable digital growth business, with a strong balance sheet."

Despite the lack of a hot new title in the first nine months of 2017, print unit sales for the period were 2% higher than in the comparable timeframe in 2016. According to NPD BookScan, print units were 467.7 million in the January–September period, up from 460.6 million the previous year. While it is certainly possible that some fall books will ring up big numbers, the small sales gain to date has been driven by backlist titles. Only three of the year’s top 10 bestsellers to date were released in this calendar year. John Grisham’s Camino Island was the top new book, selling more than 528,000 print copies since its release in June to land at #5 on the year-to-date bestseller list. The other new titles on the top 10 list are Ruth Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10 (#7) and Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (#10). The bestselling title so far this year is Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur. Released in October 2015, the book has sold more than 706,000 copies in 2017, easily outdistancing the second-place book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss. Click Read More below for more of the story.