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Product Development Assets (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	Apr. 30, 2020	Apr. 30, 2019
Product Development Assets [Abstract]
Product development assets	$ 53,643	$ 62,470
Accumulated amortization	244,100	236,500
Book Composition Costs [Member]
Product Development Assets [Abstract]
Product development assets	18,744	19,197
Work in process	4,900	4,300
Software Costs [Member]
Product Development Assets [Abstract]
Product development assets	28,995	38,048
Content Development Costs [Member]
Product Development Assets [Abstract]
Product development assets	$ 5,904	$ 5,225

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Product development assets consist of composition costs and royalty advances to authors. Composition costs, primarily represent the costs incurred to bring an edited commercial manuscript to publication including typesetting, proofreading, design and illustration, etc. Royalty advances to authors are capitalized and, upon publication, are recovered as royalties earned by the authors based on sales of the published works.

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- Definition

Amount of product development assets, which are partially completed at the time of measurement.

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- Definition

Accumulated amortization of other deferred costs capitalized at the end of the reporting period. Does not include deferred finance costs, deferred acquisition costs of insurance companies, or deferred leasing costs for real estate operations.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 210
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-02.17)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=120391452&loc=d3e13212-122682

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