Surging eBook Sales Help a Shrinking Random House Find Profit

PW: "Led by a 250% increase in e-book sales, strong lists and favorable exchange rates, total revenue at Random House rose 6.1%, to 1.83 billion euros ($2.57 billion at current exchange rates), while earnings before interest, taxes and special items jumped 26.3% to 173 million euros ($243 million). In addition to top line growth profits benefited from cost controls, parent company Bertelsmann said. Random ended 2010 with 168 fewer employees than in 2009. ... "

Bertelsmann Raises Outlook

WSJ.com: "Media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG Tuesday lifted its full year outlook after a significant improvement in first-half results, driven by the steady improvement in advertising markets, cost cutting and lower charges compared with a year earlier. Growth was mainly fueled by the advertising-driven divisions, broadcaster RTL Group SA (RTL.BT), Hamburg-based newspaper and magazine publisher Gruner Jahr, and by trade book publisher Random House where the U.S. business and digital activities were particularly positive, Bertelsmann said."

Random House Sees E - Book Sales Jumping - CEO - NYTimes.com

Random House Sees E - Book Sales Jumping - CEO - NYTimes.com: "VIENNA (Reuters) - Bertelsmann's Random House, the world's biggest book publisher, expects electronic books to contribute more than 10 percent of its U.S. revenue next year, its head was quoted as saying on Sunday. Chief Executive Markus Dohle told German magazine Der Spiegel that e-book revenue had already jumped to 8 percent in the United States and had turned into a new growth driver for the publisher of Dan Brown, John Grisham and Stieg Larsson."

Bertelsmann and Holtzbrinck Partner for German-Language E-Book Platform

Sparse details from PW's PWxyz blog:

... The platform will mostly sell the two partners’ e-books, but will also sell books from other companies.