AAP August 2023 StatShot Report: Overall Publishing Industry Up 8.5% for Month of August, and Up 0.6% Year-To-Date

Financial and Business Highlights: *Gross revenue was $203.3 million in the second quarter of 2020, a decrease of 28.4% compared to $283.9 million in the second quarter of 2019. *Gross profit was $48.4 million, or 23.8% of gross revenue in the second quarter of 2020, compared to $68.4 million, or 24.1% of gross revenue, in the same period of last year. *Net loss for the second quarter of 2020 was $(7.9) million, or $(0.15) per diluted share, compared to net loss of $(0.5) million, or $(0.01) per diluted share in the second quarter of 2019. Year-to-date net loss was $(10.8) million, compared to $(2.6) million in the same period of 2019.

For the thirteen weeks ended August 1, 2020 (the "second quarter"), the Company reported: *A net loss of $46.8 million a material improvement over the thirteen weeks ended May 2, 2020 (the "first quarter"). The second quarter net loss includes the after-tax impact of inventory write-offs of $8.0 million. For the thirteen weeks ended August 3, 2019 ("last year's second quarter"), the net loss was $2.3 million. *Net sales were $306.2 million, an improvement of 9.2% from the first quarter, reflecting the benefit of strong digital sales and store reopenings. Sales decreased approximately 39.8% from last year's second quarter, reflecting disruptions related to the pandemic, including the continuation of temporary store closures and limited hours during the second quarter, as well as the impact of 74 net permanent store closures since last year's second quarter, partially offset by double-digit growth in digital performance. For the twenty-six weeks ended August 1, 2020, the Company reported: *A net loss of $225.1 million compared to net loss of $0.3 million for the twenty-six weeks ended August 3, 2019.

Unit sales of print books rose 3% for the first six months of 2017 compared to the first half of last year at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Units for the January-June period in 2017 totaled 310.7 million, up from 302.8 million a year ago. All four of the major segments had increases over the first six months of 2016, with juvenile fiction having the best performance; unit sales in the category were up 5%. The growth in juvenile nonfiction was just behind fiction, up 4%. Sales in the adult segments were less robust. Adult nonfiction unit sales increased 2% over the first half of 2016, while adult fiction sales rose just under 1%. Click Read More below for additional detail.