Average Time to Deliver Mail Remains at 2.5 Days

In the last full shopping week before Christmas, unit sales of print books rose 5.2% over the week ended December 12 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. But unlike many weeks in 2020, unit sales fell compared to 2019, with unit sales down 3.5% from the week ended December 21, 2019. The adult segments led the gain over the week ended December 12. Unit sales of adult nonfiction increased 10.3% over the prior week as Barack Obama’s A Promised Land remained the top-seller, selling more than 327,000 copies. Since its release November 17, the memoir has been the #1 selling book in the country every week and has sold over 2,254,000 copies at outlets that report to BookScan.

Net income decreased 54% to $414 million and diluted earnings per share declined 52% to $1.61 as a result of the prior period benefiting from a pre-tax gain of $722 million on the sale of J.D. Power. Adjusted net income increased 16% to $442 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 19% to $1.71. The adjustments in the third quarter of 2017 were for deal-related amortization and restructuring. Both net income and adjusted net income benefited from an accounting change associated with the recognition of excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation in 2017. "The underlying environment for our businesses is healthy with an improving global GDP, higher commodity prices, strong equity markets, and modest growth in U.S. bond issuance. With this backdrop, our Company is thriving as all of our business segments contributed solid organic revenue and adjusted operating profit growth during the quarter," said Douglas L. Peterson, President and Chief Executive Officer of S&P Global. "We continue to focus on delivering meaningful revenue growth, launching new products, investing in productivity, and returning capital to shareholders." Click Read More below for additional information.

The Association of American Publishers welcomed the release of the 2023 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). The Notorious Markets List highlights online and physical markets around the world engaged in industrial-scale copyright infringement and counterfeiting, which adversely impacts the interests of U.S. publishers, authors, and other rights holders. “The publishing industry thanks USTR and the interagency for their work in protecting the intellectual property of publishers and authors, whose livelihoods depend on the protection and enforcement of their rights,” said Lui Simpson, Senior Vice President for Global Policy at AAP. “The Notorious Markets report remains a critical tool for exposing online sites and marketplaces that traffic in infringing copies of books and journal articles.”