Print Unit Sales Rose 2.3% in Mid-May (publishersweekly.com)

Domestic revenue of $10.99 billion increased 1.2% versus last year. The increase was primarily driven by comparable sales growth of 2.0%, which was partially offset by the loss of revenue from permanent store closures in the past year. Domestic GAAP SG&A was $1.96 billion, or 17.9% of revenue, versus $1.95 billion, or 18.0% of revenue, last year. International revenue of $925 million decreased 7.8% versus last year. This decrease was primarily driven by the loss of revenue from exiting Mexico and a comparable sales decline of 3.0% in Canada. These items were partially offset by the benefit of approximately 450 basis points of favorable foreign currency exchange rates. International GAAP gross profit rate was 25.0% versus 19.0% last year. On a non-GAAP basis, the gross profit rate was 25.0% versus 22.6% last year.

No matter which way you look at it, sales of mass market paperbacks have been in steady decline since 2017. NPD BookScan data shows that unit sales fell 31.5% in 2021 compared to 2017, while the Association of American Publishers put the decline in dollar sales at a more disturbing 42.7% in 2020. Both data sets show more declines occurring in 2022. To be sure, the mass market paperback format has experienced ups and downs in the past. The last time PW wrote about the prospects for mass market paperbacks, in October 2014, the format was trying to recover from the shock it suffered due to the explosion of cheap e-books, especially in such important areas as romance and science fiction and fantasy. (Asked last week, during the DOJ’s trial to prevent PRH from acquiring S&S, whether he had made reductions in title output following the Random House–Penguin merger in 2013, PRH CEO Markus Dohle pointed to adjusting the number of mass market paperbacks published by Berkley/NAL in response to the flood of 99¢ and $1.99 self-published e-books that hit the market, luring away readers of genre fiction.)

The United States Postal Service reported new delivery performance metrics for the fiscal second quarter dating through the month of March. Through the second quarter, the average time for delivery of a mailpiece across the postal network was 2.7 days. First-Class Mail performance showed steady improvements over the past five consecutive weeks, reaching 93.9 percent for the week ending April 1. The latest performance scores for Marketing Mail reflect the two best consecutive quarters since measurement began in FY 2011. Second quarter service performance scores covering Jan.1 through April 1 included: *First-Class Mail: 87.9 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 1.3 percentage points from the fiscal first quarter. *Marketing Mail: 92.6 percent of Marketing Mail deliver ed on time against the USPS service standard, consistent with performance from the fiscal first quarter.*Periodicals: 81.9 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 1 percentage point performance from the fiscal first quarter.