Scholastic sells 2M+ ‘Potter’ books in 48 hrs.

SCHOLASTIC said it sold more than 2 million copies of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two” in the first two days the book was on sale.

The book hit store shelves at 12:01 a.m. on July 31 — with more than 3,000 bookstores and libraries sponsoring events tied to the debut of the latest book about the boy wizard as a young man.

The company said the two-day sales figure is a new record for a “script book” — a novel based on a play. The associated play opened in London on July 30 to rave reviews.

In the book, written by J.K. Rowling (the original author of the seven previous Potter novels), Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, Potter has grown up, married Ginny Weas- ley, and the youngest of their three kids, a boy, is just starting at Hogwarts School, where Harry is now a teacher.

Kyle Good, a senior VP at Scholastic, said the publisher has not yet determined when or if there will be a second printing to accommodate the strong early demand.

It had already put in a massive 4.5million-copy first printing.

The company is already prepping the next J.K. Rowling book, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” which is based on a movie of the same name. Both the Warner Bros. movie and the book are due in November.

Bloggers’ passion

Passion fruit ads, an ad-hosting network that hooks up bloggers with advertisers, will close its doors Dec. 31 — and many bloggers are complaining that they are not getting paid for the ads that previously ran.

Bloggers paid a monthly subscription fee to Passion fruit ads and were supposed to collect fees from advertisers — less a small fee to the network.

But over the past month, many realized they had stopped receiving payments.

A statement on Passsion fruit ads’ site said, “It’s no surprise things around here have been in disarray. Blogging has changed dramatically since we opened shop four years ago, and advertising even more so.

“We tried a lot of angles to this business but never quite found that sweet spot of making it all work. So the time has come to close up shop and move on.

“Despite the recent delays in payments, everyone will still be paid in full. Payments are happening weekly and will continue through the end of the year.

“After December 31, we’ll cut the cables and flip the lights off. Please make arrangements to move your ads to your own blogs by then.”

Amanda Hearn, who writes the ecofriendlyfamily.com blog, said she is owed $400 and that others are owed “thousands.”

A group of bloggers have started a closed group on Facebook, Screwed by Passion Fruit Ads.

Jason Lynes, who started Passionfruitads, did not return an email by press time Thursday.

Time Inc. sink

Time Inc. shares got slammed on Thursday, falling 8.4 percent after CEO-Joe Ripp lowered 2016 revenue guidance to flat to a 1.5 percent gain.

That’s down from earlier guidance of a 1 percent to 5 percent gain.

But a dramatic double-digit dive in print-ad revenue in the second quarter — from which the publisher of People, Time, Sports Illustrated and InStyle derives more than 70 percent of its ad revenue — forced Ripp to lower the outlook.

The stock tumbled to $14.33 a share.

Total revenue fell 1 percent, to $769 million. Wall Street had been expecting at least $782.5 million, according to Thomson Reuters.

Print ad revenues slipped 12.8 percent. The smaller digital ad revenue jumped 65 percent. Much of that hike was attributable to the acquisition of internet marketing service Viant in February.

Without Viant, digital ad dollars would have risen only 10 percent.

Net income was off 25 percent, to $18 million.

The company also revealed that it plans to take a $35 million restructuring charge.

Time Inc. is in the process of laying off roughly 110 people, Media Ink reported this week, citing sources inside the company.

Meanwhile, morale at Time Inc. is said to be plunging, and insiders are worried that more cutbacks are ahead.

InStyle exit

A senior staffer at Time Inc.’s InStyle magazine is following longtime Editorial Director Ariel Foxman out the door: Angela Matusik, a deputy editor who headed InStyle.com and was most recently the head of branded content strategy for the magazine, is leaving. She was rumored to be a potential interim editor-in-chief after Foxman said last month he would step down. Instead, the interim job went to Lisa Arbetter, who was running StyleWatch. “I’m sure many of you have heard about the restructuring at Time Inc., but I want to personally share my news with you,” Matusik posted on Facebook on Thursday. Her last day is Aug. 16. Matusik said she was grateful to Foxman for the opportunity.