Book Biz Closes Out an Unexpected 2020 (publishersweekly.com)

Amazon announced its first-ever purchase of eleven Boeing 767-300 aircraft, expanding its fleet to continue to serve customers. The purchases include seven aircraft from Delta and four aircraft from WestJet, which will join the network by 2022. Amazon Air’s fleet expansion comes at a time when customers are relying on fast, free shipping more than ever. “Our goal is to continue delivering for customers across the U.S. in the way that they expect from Amazon, and purchasing our own aircraft is a natural next step toward that goal,” said Sarah Rhoads, Vice President of Amazon Global Air. “Having a mix of both leased and owned aircraft in our growing fleet allows us to better manage our operations, which in turn helps us to keep pace in meeting our customer promises.”

Fiscal 2022 first quarter revenues grew 2 percent to $709 million. Looking more closely at the quarter: *Digital revenues grew 24 percent to $200 million. Performance was led by strong 29 percent growth in digital advertising revenues. Meredith continues to benefit from its proprietary technology platform that brings together strong content and trusted brands, unique taxonomy, and first party data. Digital consumer revenues grew 24 percent, with performance driven by Apple News+ and performance marketing via retail partners, including Walmart, Amazon, and Target. *Magazine revenues declined 2 percent to $305 million. Magazine consumer related revenue, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of the segment's revenue, grew 6 percent, driven by newsstand and subscription revenue performance. Magazine advertising revenues declined as expected, due primarily to the food, prescription drug, and beauty categories, which continue to be adversely impacted by current economic conditions including ongoing work-from-home protocols and supply chain disruptions. *Local Media Group revenues declined 7 percent to $209 million. As expected in a non-political year, political spot advertising revenues were lower at $5 million compared to $52 million. Non-political spot advertising revenues grew 24 percent, reflecting a lack of political advertising crowd out, and driven primarily by gaming, professional services, and home categories. Retransmission revenue growth was driven primarily by annual escalations.

REI released its 2022 Impact Report and financials results, closing the year with a record $3.85 billion in sales. The co-op ended the year with a strong liquidity and working capital position and continued to invest in its mission of investing in its members, employees, and the outdoors. “I’m incredibly impressed by all we’ve accomplished as a co-op,” said Eric Artz, President and CEO, in a public letter released alongside the report. “Throughout 2022, we invested in our people, in our capabilities, and in the communities we serve. We invested in membership with new and enhanced offerings and held fast to our commitment to distributing our full Co-op Member Reward to more than 23 million members during a year without profits to fund it. As a co-op, we are in the fortunate position to be able to make long-term choices and investments like this, but we do not do so lightly. We remain focused on a path back to sustainable profitability for the co-op to ensure a healthy long-term future.” In 2022, REI focused on investing in the employee experience. Often cited as a top place to work, the co-op remained committed to competitive pay and introduced new industry-leading benefits. In 2022, REI put an additional $50 million toward pay raises for hourly employees and delivered another $92 million toward employee retirement and bonuses.