Despite an overall soft publishing market, company officials reported “a solid first half” in a July 28 earnings call, and, looking ahead, confirmed that the publisher is in line to receive a substantial windfall from the recently approved Anthropic settlement in the U.S.

By Andrew Richard Albanese, Editor-in-Chief

Hachette parent company Lagardère Publishing reported earnings of €1.343 million (1.59 million) for the first half of 2025, representing “a year-on-year decrease of 0.4% on a reported basis” and an “increase of 1.3% like for like”—a “solid first half,” company officials said in a July 28 earnings call, despite an overall soft publishing market. In a release, reps said the difference between reported and like-for-like figures “was mainly due to a €38 million negative currency effect” attributed to the depreciation of the U.S. dollar and the British pound.

“At Lagardère Publishing, performance remained solid, supported by the diversity and quality of the portfolio,” said Jean-Christophe Thierry, Chairman and CEO, Louis Hachette Group, with France and the U.K. both posting declines over 2025, while the U.S. and Spain/Latin America posted gains.

Specifically, revenue contracted by 1.6% in France over 2025 in what Louis Hachette Group Deputy CEO Grégoire Castaing described as a “difficult” market that overall declined by around 5%. General literature performed well, however, fueled by Guillaume Musso’s latest novel Le Crime du Paradis and the fourth and final installment of Pierre Lemaitre’s series Les Belles Promesses. Another bright spot: Castaing said digital audio revenue continued to grow “with a more than 20% increase in France year on year.”

More broadly, however, “we continue to see the impact of cautious customer spending and a softer environment for discretionary purchases,” which, Castaing said, made the performance in France “all the more noteworthy.”

In the U.K., revenue contracted by 1.2% against a strong 2025. Revenue in the first half of 2026 benefited from “robust backlist sales”—paced by sales of Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid series and Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet (which was boosted by new film adaptations), and by the release of the sixth volume of Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series and Florence Knapp’s The Names.

In the United States, revenue was up over a strong 2025, thanks to a “particularly dynamic frontlist” and strong audiobook sales. “Hachette Book Group had an excellent first half, with revenue up 1.3% year on year, against a notably strong H1 2025, and in a challenging market,” said David Shelley, CEO of the Hachette Book Group and Hachette U.K.

Shelley cited “a notable number” of #1 New York Times bestsellers in the second quarter, including Liar’s Kingdom by Andrew Weissman (Little, Brown); The Land and Its People by David Sedaris (Little, Brown); Birth Vibes by Jen Hamilton (Grand Central); It’s My Bird-Day by Mo Willems (Union Square); and Hope Rises by David Baldacci (Grand Central).

Looking ahead, Shelley pointed to another strong slate of releases to finish out the year, including Joe Biden’s memoir and new books by Min Jin Lee, Elin Hilderbrand, James Patterson, and Malcolm Gladwell.

And in Spain/Latin America, revenue rose sharply by 13%. “This performance was spurred by the early start to the textbook campaign in Spain, combined with the growth of the paperback format in the trade segment, following the creation of a dedicated imprint in 2025,” Hachette reps noted, in a release, adding that Latin America also reported growth in both the Education and trade segments.

Looking to the second half of the year, the company confirmed that it stands to reap a sizable sum from the recently approved Anthropic settlement in the U.S., although they declined to offer an estimate. “We had, let’s say, a good and significant settlement in the U.S.,” Castaing said, noting that some publishers—notably Bloomsbury—have disclosed their “expectations” regarding the settlement.

“On our side, we think it’s too early to disclose any specific amounts for the company since the settlement amount is after attorney fees and other expenses and will also be, of course, shared with the author,” Castaing said, putting the “total number” of Lagardère Publishing titles in the settlement at 15,000 “less or more.” At that number, at an estimated $3,000 to $3,100 per work, split with the authors, the publisher would stand to take in more than $22 million.

Castaing added that the company’s “main focus” at this time is “more focused” on the ongoing litigation, with Hachette a named plaintiff is two similar recently announced AI lawsuits: one against Google, and one against Meta. Asked by analysts about pursuing new deals with AI companies Castaing said the company hasn’t ruled out “monetizing our content if we believe that both we and our author would benefit from it.”