John Wiley & Sons NYSE: WLY said its first-quarter fiscal 2027 performance met its internal plan as growth in research publishing and artificial intelligence-related offerings was offset by a difficult comparison with the prior year and continued weakness in learning markets.
CEO Matt Kissner said the company generated $14 million in AI revenue during the quarter, while research publishing revenue increased 12%. However, the prior-year quarter included $29 million in AI licensing revenue, creating a significant year-over-year comparison headwind. Learning revenue also declined amid softer professional-market demand and a seasonally smaller academic period.
“Nothing in the quarter changes our full-year expectations,” Kissner said, adding that Wiley’s research content and data assets are increasingly being used in AI-driven scientific and corporate research applications.
Research growth and Emerald integration
Research revenue was $293 million, up 4% from the prior-year period. Research Publishing revenue rose 12%, including a $13 million contribution from Emerald Publishing, which Wiley acquired during the quarter. Excluding Emerald, publishing revenue grew about 6%, according to CFO Craig Albright.
Research Solutions revenue declined 30%, largely because of the prior-year AI licensing comparison. Softer publishing services and recruiting activity also weighed on the segment, though advertising revenue grew.
Research adjusted EBITDA increased 9% to $87 million, and the segment’s adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 130 basis points to 29.6%. Albright attributed the improvement to Emerald’s contribution and organic cost savings initiatives.
Wiley said research publishing demand remained strong, with submissions rising 31% and publishing output increasing 8%. The company also reported customer retention above 99% following its calendar 2026 journal renewal season.
The company is integrating Emerald ahead of schedule, management said. Emerald added $5 million of adjusted EBITDA during the quarter at a margin above the research segment average. Wiley expects the acquisition to deliver the full $30 million in targeted cost synergies by its third year, with the bulk of those savings expected in year two.
Kissner said Emerald also broadens Wiley’s content portfolio in economics, business and finance, supporting its licensing and data analytics strategy.
AI revenue pipeline and scientific partnerships
Wiley said it remains on track to exceed $50 million in AI revenue in fiscal 2027 and expects recurring AI revenue to grow two to three times from the prior year. Of the $14 million of AI revenue recognized in the first quarter, $10.5 million came from model-training arrangements and $3.5 million was recurring revenue.
The company has contracted another $14 million in AI licensing revenue for recognition across the second and third quarters, with additional agreements under discussion. Albright cautioned that licensing arrangements can be variable or “lumpy,” though he said current revenue phasing is similar to last year’s pattern after the unusually large first-quarter comparison.
Wiley expanded its customer base for subscription knowledge feeds to 23 customers across five verticals: life sciences, healthcare, food and agriculture, materials and chemistry, and financial services. Its Wiley AI Knowledge Nexus licensing service now includes 71 society and publishing partners.
During the quarter, Wiley was invited to participate in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, a public-private effort intended to apply AI to scientific and technology challenges. Wiley said it was the sole scientific publisher participating and will provide research intelligence tools to researchers across DOE national laboratories.
The company also became a founding data partner in CuspAI’s Global Materials Foundry. CuspAI licensed access to Wiley’s materials-science content to train its platform, which focuses on materials discovery for semiconductors, clean energy and advanced manufacturing.
Wiley also launched its Spectral Analysis API portfolio for corporate and academic laboratories. The offering is designed to deliver chemical reference data into laboratory software workflows.
Learning segment remains under pressure
Learning revenue declined 20% to $93 million. Academic revenue fell 20% to $45 million, reflecting $8 million of prior-year AI licensing revenue and lower print sales, partly offset by growth in digital content and courseware.
Professional revenue declined 20% to $48 million, including a $5 million prior-year AI licensing comparison, softer consumer demand in retail and weaker corporate demand for assessments. Excluding the AI comparison, learning revenue declined just under 10%, Albright said.
Learning adjusted EBITDA was $14 million, with margin falling to 15.1% from 27.4% a year earlier, reflecting lower revenue and product mix.
Management said the retail business faced the most difficult comparison of the year following inventory reductions through the Amazon channel in late August of the prior year. Albright said industry retail unit sales declined at the same rate as Wiley’s, characterizing the pressure as market-wide.
Wiley expects retail inventories to normalize as the year progresses. It also expects courseware and inclusive access offerings to continue growing and assessments performance to improve. The company is concentrating its editorial list on higher-performing titles, investing in digital and inclusive-access channels, and pursuing cost reductions to protect margins.
Guidance reaffirmed
Wiley reaffirmed its fiscal 2027 outlook, including organic revenue growth of low-to-mid-single digits and mid-single-digit organic growth in research. Organic growth excludes the expected $78 million contribution from Emerald over 11 months of the fiscal year.
- Adjusted EBITDA margin of 26.5% to 27.5%, compared with 26.2% in fiscal 2026.
- Adjusted earnings per share of $4.60 to $5.05, compared with $4.19 in fiscal 2026, including roughly $0.10 from Emerald.
- Free cash flow of $205 million, up from $195 million in fiscal 2026.
First-quarter adjusted EBITDA declined 4% and adjusted EPS fell 10%, partly reflecting higher interest expense associated with the Emerald acquisition. On a GAAP basis, Wiley posted a loss of $0.23 per share, compared with earnings of $0.22 per share a year earlier, primarily due to restructuring charges and acquisition and integration costs.
The company raised its dividend for the 33rd consecutive year and returned $33 million to shareholders through dividends and repurchases during the quarter.
About John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY)
John Wiley & Sons, Inc is a global publishing and educational services company founded in 1807 and headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey. The company operates through two primary segments: Research & Publishing and Education. Through these segments, Wiley produces a wide range of scholarly journals, books, reference works and digital products for academic, scientific, technical and medical markets, as well as professional development and higher education learning resources.
In its Research & Publishing segment, Wiley publishes thousands of peer-reviewed journals and maintains the Wiley Online Library, a leading platform for scientific and scholarly content.
This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.
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