Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Picking an example at random of one of the "Big 5", these are Hachette's revenue figures for the last 5 years:
2011: 2038 (millions of Euro)
2012: 2077
2013: 2066
2014: 2004
2015: 2206
( Source)
Those don't look like the figures of a business that needs to change. Revenue is stable and, indeed, increased by 10% in the last year. Large companies tend to be risk-averse. Their current business model is clearly working well for them at the moment.
I should add, by the way, that I'm in no way disagreeing with you. Just saying that it's understandable why they should see no need to change a way of doing business that's working well for them. |
Careful with those last numbers: the euro decline vs the dollar over the last two years has turned US sales net dollar drops into net euro gains.
Plus a lot of those year to year "gains" are the result of mergers where the post merger result is lower than sum of the pieces pre-merger. (But it reduces costs by putting people out of work--sending them to freelance for Indie, inc.)
Plus the BPHs are putting out less Mass Market paperbacks and doing more trade paperback releases at higher prices; they sell less books but beef up their sales reports a lot and their profits just a bit.
A lot of those "gains" are really trading long term market share (and author income) for short term reportable "boosts".
Accounting games aren't limited to Hollywood.
The BPHs' business has been stagnant-to-declining all century long *despite* the mergers, staff reductions, declining advances, price hikes, windowing, author squeezes, vanity publishing plays, and format changes.
http://the-digital-reader.com/wp-con.../06/5Wide1.gif
http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/0...ustry-numbers/
And the funny part is they *aren't* actually trying to beef up a real cash cow (that's why you had the term in quotes, right?) since pbook net margins are about half the net of even "too cheap" $9.99 ebooks. The Agency price hikes in 2010 actually reduced their profits.
Watching sausage get made is rarely pretty but in this case it is amusing to see the obfuscation games they come up with. They are anything but slothful.
Reminds me of the Wizard of Oz (movie).