Books Rule, Music Droolz

November 16, 2005 by wfzimmerman | No comments

Books Bright Spot at Gloomy Borders - 11/16/2005 - Publishers Weekly:

Borders Group had a rough third quarter with total sales up only 0.5%, to $837.2 million, while the net loss increased to $14.1 million from $1.1 million. The good news for publishers, however, is that books performed well in the period with comparable book sales up 3% at the company’s superstores. “The trend for books continues to be good,” said Borders CFO Ed Wilhelm. Music continued to be the black hole for Borders with same store music sales down 15% in the quarter, resulting in a 0.2% decline in overall comp store sale performance at the superstores.

Book sales were driven by solid backlist sales and a broad selection of new releases, which helped to offset lower sales of bestsellers, said Wilhelm. Among the titles that did well in the third quarter were The March, The Historian and The Year of Magical Thinking as well as several mystery titles. Wilhelm said title selection for the holiday season looks stronger than last year. In addition to the top sellers in the third quareter continuing to do well over the holiday, other books that should be strong sellers include Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals and the new James Patterson, Mary Mary.

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Books rule. As far as this book-lover is concerned, while music, DVDs, and coffee are nice add-ons, it would also be just fine if Borders returned to its 1970s configuration of books — period.

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