Member Article

Bloomsbury Publishers buoyed by digital sales

“A new digital environment” resulted in growing profits year-on-year for publishing house Bloomsbury.The London-founded publisher said a rise in online sales buoyed the business despite a 2% fall in book sales.

J.K Rowling’s “Hogwarts Library”, T.V. chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s “Three Good Things” and Paul Hollywood’s “How to Bake” were named as Bloomsbury’s top sellers for the year.

The publisher also said e-books were generating pleasing returns, with 58% growth in sales year-on-year for the final third of 2012, with a particular rise in the UK.As of 31st December, the group held net cash of £7.7m, and said results for the year 2012/12 would be dependent on sales across the six week post-Christmas period.

Nigel Newton, Chief Executive of Bloomsbury, commented: “We are making good progress on many fronts during the transition of the market towards more digital sales.

“E-book sales are showing strong momentum and we are greatly encouraged by the potential of our online Knowledge Hubs where we have some large deals in progress.

Bloomsbury is a robust business, well adapted to the challenges of changing publishing trends and the increasing prominence of the digital market place.

“Our business is underpinned by an extremely strong author list and we are entering the new financial year with new books by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, two of the world’s best selling authors.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .