Courier Reports Education Sales Up, Borders Fallout Induces Loss

Fallout from the impact of the Borders bankruptcy continued to affect all three publishing businesses, but was most acute at REA, where sales were down 21 percent in the quarter and 29 percent for the first nine months of the year. Despite this drop, REA remained profitable in the quarter, helped by the continuing popularity of its AP Crash Course books. However, given the current situation at Borders, Courier recorded an impairment of all of REA’s goodwill through a pre-tax, non-cash charge of $8.6 million or $.43 per diluted share.