Revenue in the school education group fell 12% in the quarter, to $603 million, as the school division had fewer adoption opportunities in the last quarter compared to 2005. The company’s elementary school products also had disappointing performances in Florida and California, and the testing market continued to be soft.

Sales in the higher education, professional and international group rose 2.2% in the quarter, to $467.2 million. Sales to colleges were led by the science, engineering and math segments, while sales in the humanities, social sciences and business and economic categories fell modestly. Overseas gains were driven by increases in Spanish-language markets and by higher college sales in Canada.

For the first nine months of the year, operating profit at MHE was off 13.1%, to $324.7 million, and revenue dropped 4%, to just under $2 billion.

"Borders and Waldenbooks and Hot Topic are destinations for our core fans and are the perfect retailers to launch merchandise for Shonen Jump Bleach," said Carol Roeder, v-p, consumer products for Viz Media. Viz will continue to offer Bleach merchandise through its online store at Viz.com. Maria Comfort, senior v-p at Hot Topic, said, "Bleach already has a huge following among our customers," and Borders graphic novel buyer Kurt Hassler said, "We share the fans' enthusiasm for the license, and we're eager to provide additional merchandise."

Evelyn Dubocq, a Viz spokesperson, said Borders and Walden will begin selling a hooded sweatshirt and Bleach Wall scrolls immediately and in November will expand the variety of merchandise to include such items as messenger bags and T-shirts. Hot Topic will begin selling sweatshirts, T-shirts, key chains, figurines, messenger bags, stationary products and buttons. Dubocq said apparel items will be pre-packaged and relatively easy for stores to display.

Published in the U.S. since 2004, Bleach is the story of a teenage boy who can see ghosts. Already a popular manga property, the Bleach anime series debuted on the Cartoon Network in September with high ratings and a subsequent spike in the sales of the manga volumes. The Bleach manga series, available through Borders and Walden, has more than a million copies in print.

While Norton expected the title to generate significant interest at the fair, Kerr said she was nonetheless "incredibly amazed" at the response it drew. She added that she thinks the book, which focuses on Domingo's passion for opera, is of special interest since it will have a wide appeal for the singer/composer's fans as well as opera lovers. "We see it as something that will be in print for decades," Kerr said.

We now have more details on the second effort by runaway bestseller Khaled Hosseini, author of Riverhead's 2003 smash The Kite Runner. While news that Hosseini had signed with Riverhead for his second book was circulating as far back as April '05, specifics on the title had yet to come into focus. A Thousand Splendid Suns—at one point it was called Dreaming in Titanic City—has a May 22, 2007, pub date and is being edited by v-p and executive editor Sarah McGrath. Aside from that, Riverhead’s announcement doesn’t offer much, other than a promise that the book is very much in the vein of The Kite Runner. Like Hosseini's debut, this novel is set in his native Afghanistan and, like that book, it is "a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith and the salvation to be found in love."

PW Daily is also available as an RSS Feed.
Click here for more information.

Subscribe to PW Daily
Unsubscribe from PW Daily

Read past issues of the newsletter.

Read our Updated Privacy Policy

To subscribe to Publishers Weekly, or to learn more about our subscription package, click here

If your links aren't working, you can view this newsletter by copy and pasting the following URL
into your browser:
publishersweekly.com/eNewsletter/CA6383041/2789.html?nid=2286

Advertising information
Editorial inquiries

For all other questions, contact:
Online Support Team
Reed Business Information
2000 Clearwater Drive, Oak Brook, IL 60523
MediaSupport@reedbusiness.com?Subject=PW-"PWD"--michael.gwertzman@reedbusiness.com

© 2006 Reed Business Information