News
Publisher Shueisha Reports 1st Fiscal Year in the Red
posted on by Egan Loo
The Japanese publisher Shueisha reported on Thursday that it had a loss of 4.18 billion yen (about US$49 million) during the most recent fiscal year — the first annual loss that Shueisha has reported.
During the fiscal year that ran from June 1, 2009 to May 31, 2010, Shueisha's advertising revenues dropped 24.8% from the previous year. The company was also affected by the loss of appraised value in its real estate holdings. However, sales of its books and magazines were actually 2.8% higher at 105.261 billion yen (US$1.2444 billion). In particular, sales of its Weekly Shonen Jump magazine rose, and so did sales of its manga book volumes. On the other hand, sales of other book categories such as literature fell 2.8%.
Shueisha's revenues for the fiscal year were 130.47 billion yen (US$1.542 billion), which were 2.1% less that the previous year's. It is also the fourth fiscal year in a row that revenues have dropped. However, its revenues were higher than those of the two other major Japanese publishing companies, Kodansha (124.522 billion yen or US$1.4621 billion) and Shogakukan (117.721 billion yen or US$1.3917 billion). As a result, Shueisha has replaced Kodansha as the largest publisher in Japan by revenue.
Both Kodansha and Shogakukan reported losses in the fiscal years ending in November of 2009 and February of 2010, respectively.
Source: Shinbunka via Moe Otanews Sokuhō, Nikkei
