Print Unit Sales Up 8% in Late August (publishersweekly.com)

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for September 2023 reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Higher Education Course Materials, and Professional Publishing. Total revenues across all categories for September 2023 were flat as compared to September 2022, coming in at $1.4 billion. Year-to-date revenues were up 0.8%, at $9.4 billion for the first nine months of the year. Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were down 0.4% in September, coming in at $905.9 million. In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of September, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 7.2%, coming in at $379.2 million; Paperbacks were down 4.9%, with $299.1 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 39.5% to $11.3 million; and Special Bindings were up 11.8%, with $27.1 million in revenue.

Total revenues for the first quarter of 2018 increased 3.8 percent to $413.9 million from $398.8 million in the first quarter of 2017. Subscription revenues increased 7.5 percent, while advertising revenues decreased 3.4 percent and other revenues increased 5.0 percent. Operating costs increased in the first quarter of 2018 to $378.0 million compared with $368.6 million in the first quarter of 2017, largely due to higher compensation costs, which was partially offset by lower print production and distribution costs. Adjusted operating costs increased to $358.5 million from $348.6 million in the first quarter of 2017. Click Read More below for additional information.

Costco Wholesale Corporation announced that its Board of Directors has reauthorized a common stock repurchase program of up to $4 billion. This program will expire in January 2027 and replaces the current $4 billion program (adopted in 2019 and scheduled to expire April 2023), under which approximately $1.4 billion had been purchased. The Board of Directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend on Costco common stock of 90 cents per share. The dividend is payable February 17, 2023, to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 3, 2023. Costco currently operates 847 warehouses, including 583 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 107 in Canada, 40 in Mexico, 31 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 18 in Korea, 14 in Taiwan, 14 in Australia, four in Spain, two each in France and China, and one each in Iceland, New Zealand and Sweden. Costco also operates e-commerce sites in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.