Spare a Tear for the Profit-Challenged Legal Publishers
Well Thomson Reuters reported this morning and as is consistent with its competitors’ results, this hasn’t been a happy quarter.
Thomson has had indigestion-expenses from the Reuters acquisition, but even so, the sort of profit margins that management have been expecting over the past decade from legal publishing haven’t been as easy this year.
Here is a round-up of the big three.
Here is what Thomson reported:
Thomson Reuters Corp. said second- quarter profit fell 54 percent on costs from the $15.9 billion combination of two of the biggest financial news and data providers. The company confirmed its 2008 sales forecast.
Net income declined to $173 million, or 22 cents a share, from $377 million, or 58 cents, a year earlier.
* Revenues increased 8% to $923 million. Organic revenue growth was 6%, driven by strength across Legal’s portfolio of businesses anchored by Westlaw. Westlaw Litigator continued to deliver strong results, growing 18% in the quarter, with online solutions continuing to perform well in both the U.S. and internationally. Organic revenues also benefited from robust growth for Software and Services, as FindLaw registered strong growth due to new sales and new products and Consulting Services recorded strong utilization rates.
* Operating profit grew 9% to $321 million. Operating profit margin for the quarter increased 30 basis points to 34.8% compared with the prior year period.
At the end of July, the news from Amsterdam was fairly dismal from Wolters Kluwer.
Dutch publisher Wolters Kluwer reported its first-half core profit fell 5 percent, with bankers and lawyers spending less on books and software during the credit crunch.
Through the first half of 2008 Tax, Accounting & Legal had 3 % organic growth, which was an improvement over prior year. That was also driven by strong online and software revenues, as well as good performance coming out of Asia Pacific and Canada.
Finally Reed Elsevier said net profit for the period was GBP309 million, compared with GBP311 million in the first half of 2007. According to Dow Jones Newswires calculations, revenue rose 10% to GBP2.454 billion from GBP2.235 billion a year ago.
Lexis-Nexis was similarly guarded:
6 months to 30 June
• Underlying: revenues up 5%; adjusted operating profits up 9%
2008 £m 2007 £m % change
Revenue 822 764 +6%
Adjusted operating profit 194 176 +9%
Adjusted operating margin 24% 23%
• Good growth in US large law and online workflow solutions and internationally; growth little behind prior year in more challenging environment; faster H2 growth expected
• Strong growth in Risk, especially collections and government
• Margin +0.6% pts including portfolio changes; underlying +0.9% pts: revenue growth, cost efficiency; restructuring benefits
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