SEC approves paperless mutual-fund reports

Fourth Quarter Financial Highlights: *Delivered sales of $3.4 billion, up 14.2%, and up 16.9% on a daily, constant currency basis *Expanded gross margin by 240 bps to 37.3% *Generated reported and adjusted operating earnings of $417 million and achieved operating margin of 12.4%, up 305 basis points on a reported basis and up 240 basis points on an adjusted basis. 2021 Financial Highlights: *Delivered sales of $13.0 billion, up 10.4%, and up 12.4% on an organic, daily, constant currency basis *Drove U.S. market outgrowth of 100 basis points, 450 basis points on a two-year average *Achieved reported and adjusted operating earnings of $1.5 billion, up 51.8% on a reported basis and up 16.6% on an adjusted basis

Hearst achieved record profits for the seventh straight year, as our efforts to build and acquire great companies in the business data and software sector helped overcome a tough year for many of our consumer media franchises. Our biggest majority-owned business, Fitch Group, led the way with an outstanding performance across the world, particularly in its core bond ratings business. 2017 was another great year to be a consumer of media products but less so to be a provider of that content. While platform companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Netflix thrived through their dominance of advertising and ecommerce channels, many individual media brands struggled to get their share of the advertising pie and consumers bought fewer television bundles or magazine subscriptions. In magazines, led by President David Carey and Publishing Director Michael Clinton, our world class digital operation made significant gains in 2017, and some of the newer magazines we have launched over the past 10 years, namely Food Network Magazine and HGTV Magazine, are among our best editorial products and most profitable titles. Still, the magazine business needs more change. With respect to many of our titles, we need the readers to pay more for the product. And we need to find a way to make digital subscription products work for magazines in the way that they are starting to work for newspapers. Near the end of 2017 we agreed to acquire Rodale’s magazine business, with such well-established titles as Men’s Health, Women’s Health and Prevention. The addition of these titles will give our magazine business a shot in the arm and some new talent to help in our efforts to keep innovating and experimenting as we reset the business model for the future. Click Read More below for additional information.

Unit sales of print books fell 4% in 2017 compared to 2016 in Canada, while dollar sales dropped 3%, according to figures compiled by BookNet Canada’s sales tracking service. BookNet reported that the Canadian book industry sold approximately 51.5 million copies in 2017, for just over C$1 billion. Figures are based on a group of retailers that provide sales data to BookNet annually and account for about 85% of print sales. Click Read More below for additional information.