Wall Street Journal 08_04_2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Wednesday, April 8, 2020 |B5

BUSINESS NEWS

Other books aimed at home- bound learning are also promi- nent on the Amazon bestseller list, including Crystal Radke’s “My First Learn to Write Work- book: Practice for Kids with Pen Control, Line Tracing, Let- ters, and More!” and Brittany Lynch’s “My Kindergarten Workbook: 101 Games and Ac- tivities to Support Kindergar- ten Skills.” The bulk of Modern Kid’s sales come via Amazon, which also distributes the books di- rectly to consumers. Amazon prints the majority of the titles, said Mr. Lewis, but he also uses outside printers. Mr. Lewis says he wants to produce even more workbooks to meet the demand, but “there are only so many hours in the day.” Mr. Lewis and his wife were certified public accountants be- fore starting their company, which publishes a variety of books, in 2017. He focuses on the business side, including sales, marketing and advertis- ing spending, while she over- sees the company’s product and branding efforts. The Le- wises create the books with au- thors and illustrators. The business is a family af- fair, and the couple deals with many of the same issues their customers are facing as they juggle working from home and schooling for their two daugh- ters, a 7-year-old and a 4-year- old. When he said he would have to delay an interview with a reporter, Mr. Lewis, 34 years old, explained he would be watching the children for a few hours. “It’s been crazy trying to home-school the kids and run the biz!” he wrote in an email.

Until a few weeks ago, the publishing company that Rea- gan Lewis and Sada Lewis ran from the dining room and guest bedroom of their San An- tonio home was a modest oper- ation. Now, it has become a boom- ing business as orders for the children’s workbooks they sell started flooding in via Amazon. Demand hasn’t let up. School closures due to the coronavirus pandemic have left parents looking for ways to ed- ucate and entertain their young children at home. Sales at Modern Kid Press, an imprint of the Lewis family’sPaper Pe- ony Presscompany, jumped 500% in March compared with the previous year, said Mr. Lewis. He declined to give unit sales, but on a recent day, the company had five books on Amazon’s Top 100 bestseller list. “We have had books dip in and out of the Top 100, but this is crazy,” said Ms. Lewis. Many of Modern Kid Press’s titles, priced at $5.99 or $6.99, teach basics like math, reading or handwriting. Its top sellers include “Preschool Math Work- book for Toddlers Ages 2-4” and “Learn to Read: A Magical Sight Words and Phonics Activ- ity Workbook for Beginning Readers Ages 5-7.” The category, as a whole, has been on fire. Sales of juve- nile, nonfiction education books were up 157% to 1.5 mil- lion units for the four weeks ended March 28, compared with the same period in 2019, according to NPD BookScan, which tracks book sales.

BYJEFFREYA.TRACHTENBERG

Couple Cashes In on

Children’s Workbooks

The bulk of Modern Kid Press’s titles are sold via Amazon.

SADA LEWIS

Macy’sInc.’s chief financial officer will leave the company at the end of May, placing pres- sure on the beleaguered retailer to fill a key executive position while battling plummeting sales due in part to lockdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic. Paula Price, who became finance chief in July 2018 after more than five years as a lec- turer at Harvard University and

several finance, accounting and board roles at Ahold Delhaize NV, CVS Health Corp. and Dol- lar General Corp., will remain in her current role until May 31, and serve as an adviser to Macy’s through November, the New York-based retailer said Tuesday. “This was a personal deci- sion that Paula reached,” a Macy’s spokeswoman said, de- clining to provide additional details. Ms. Price and members of Macy’s board declined to comment. The move came within weeks of Macy’s embarking on a turnaround strategy aimed at cutting $1.5 billion in costs. Macy’s, as part of that plan, was set to shut down 125 stores—following closure of roughly 100 stores that was an- nounced in 2016—and slash

2,000 corporate jobs and close several offices, including its dual Cincinnati headquarters. “This was not expected,” said David Swartz, an equity analyst at ratings-firm Morn- ingstar Inc., on Ms. Price’s departure. She participated in the company’s earnings call on Feb. 25 and gave no indication that she would leave, he said. She also spoke at a Bank of America Corp. securities conference on March 10. Macy’s said it launched an external search to replace Ms. Price. The company might struggle to find suitable candidates in the current climate, recruiters say, as CFO candidates don’t want to switch employers dur- ing the pandemic-fueled eco- nomic crisis. “Having to lay off people, closing stores, reducing inven- tory, doing liquidation sales— executives don’t like to do these things,” Morningstar’s Mr. Swartz said. The Macy’s spokeswoman pointed to the company’s bench of internal executive finance talent. Analysts said they expected Macy’s to quickly pluck a replacement from its ranks. Her exit doesn’t instill confi- dence in the company’s leader- ship, said Michael Binetti, a se- nior equity analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG. Macy’s also exited the S&P 500 on Monday following a de- cline in its market capitaliza- tion. Its stock trades at roughly $5.90, down from $17 in early February, according to Factset. Bricks-and-mortar retailers have struggled for years to compete with Amazon.com Inc. and other online retailers.

BYNINATRENTMANN

Macy’s Finance

Chief Will Leave

Position May 31

Paula Price’s departure comes within weeks of the start of a strategy to cut costs.

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Wall Street Journal 08_04_2020

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