WATERSTONES AND HMV'S DIGITAL BOOK SALES ARE UP

A trading update from retailer HMV for the last five weeks ended January 2 indicates that its move into new lines of business like digital media are starting to pay off. The company says sales at the group grew by 6.7 percent.

To further its position in ticketing and live entertainment, the company is putting in a formal offer of £46 million for the MAMA Group tomorrow. Some of the digital highlights…

- “Double-digit” sales growth in e-commerce. No comment on which products—music, books, electronics—were selling best, and what this growth means in terms of actual numbers.

- Over 80,000 e-books were downloaded at Waterstones.com over the five-week period. Again, no detail on what this is in terms of actual revenues—and by how much that is offsetting losses in physical book sales at Waterstone’s, “the only remaining specialist bookseller on the high street,” in the words of CEO Simon Fox. Sales at Waterstones were down by 8.6 percent.