Macroeconomic challenges, including rising costs and uncertainly caused by Trump administration tariffs, limited sales growth at Penguin Random House in the first half of 2025 to a 2.1% increase. Revenue rose to €2.3 billion ($2.6 billion), but operating EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) fell 12%, to €255 million ($297.5 million), primarily due “to lower revenues and growth-related expenses in the core U.S business,” said parent company Bertelsmann. In his letter to employees, PRH global CEO Nihar Malaviya said rising costs were up “in nearly all areas of our business.”
To spark growth over the years, PRH has relied on acquisitions. In June, it acquired the personalized U.K-based gift books publisher Wonderbly, paying €99 million for the company, €90 million in cash. Since initial consolidation, Wonderbly has contributed €6 million to PRH revenue. If consolidated as of January 1, 2025, Wonderbly would have contributed €37 million to revenue and €3 million to PRH’s bottomline.
Taking a slightly deeper dive into PRH US, Bertelsmann reported that its largest publishing division had lower revenues and “growth-related expenses.” PRH’s bestselling fiction title in the first half of the year was Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (Berkley), which has sold more than one million copies since its publication in April. The declines in the first half were also mitigated by continued strong sales of The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House). Atomic Habits by James Clear (Avery) also sold well. Another top title in the first half of the year was the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel James by Percival Everett (Doubleday). January also saw the publication of Pope Francis’s autobiography Hope, released worldwide by PRH in English, Spanish, and German. Other bright spots at PRH US came from the audio publishing business and Penguin Random House Publishing Services.
In other parts of the business, Bertelsmann said Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial reported strong revenue and earnings growth in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year. In the U.K., Bertelsmann reported that PRH gained market share “despite a challenging market environment.”
In his letter to employees, Malaviya said that in the first half of the year, particularly in the U.S., attention was devoted not only to boosting sales, but to fighting for the right to read. He noted that PRH was named one of TIME100’s Most Influential Companies of 2025 for its battle against book bans. He pointed to the “good news” publishers and readers recently received in Florida when the court struck down a state law that purports to bar “pornographic” materials and content that “depicts or describes sexual content” from school and classroom libraries.
Looking at the rest of 2025, Malaviya told employees, “Our primary focus for the rest of the year is to continue to maximize our new publications as well as our enduring backlist to grow revenues, as that is our most effective lever to address the issue of rising costs.”
For all of Bertelsmann, the company reported that revenue rose 1.2%, to €9.1 billion and earnings were flat at €1.249 million.
The outlook for all its businesses for the rest the year, Bertelsmann said, “is primarily shaped by slower momentum in China and protectionist trade policies in the United States. U.S. import tariffs and the accompanying general uncertainty are weighing on global trade in goods and dampening global economic activity in the current year.” The company said the Kiel Institute for the World Economy expects global economic output to rise by 2.9%, a slight decrease compared with the spring forecast.
