Bloomsbury Publishing

This article is about the contemporary publishing company. For the historic literary group, see Bloomsbury Group.

Bloomsbury Publishing plc

Status	Active
Traded as	LSE: BMY FTSE SmallCap component
Founded	26 September 1986; 37 years ago (1986-09-26)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Headquarters location	London, England
Distribution	Macmillan Publishers Services (UK, US) United Book Distributors (Australia)
Key people	Sir Richard Lambert (Non-executive Chairman)[1] Nigel Newton (Chief Executive)
Publication types	Books, digital content products, and online resources such as databases
Imprints	Bloomsbury Academic Bloomsbury Methuen Drama (New York City) Company
ISIN	GB0033147751
Founder	Nigel Newton
Headquarters	United Kingdom
Revenue	£264.1 million (2023)[2]
Operating income	£25.6 million (2023)[2]
Net income	£20.2 million (2023)[2]
Official website	bloomsbury.com

Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in New York City, an India publishing office in New Delhi, an Australian sales office in Sydney CBD, and other publishing offices in the UK, including in Oxford. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index.

History

The company was founded in 1986 by Nigel Newton, who had previously been employed by other publishing companies. It was floated as a public registered company in 1994, raising £5.5 million, which was used to fund expansion of the company into paperback and children's books. A rights issue of shares in 1998 further raised £6.1 million, which was used to expand the company, in particular to found a U.S. branch. In 1998, Bloomsbury USA was established. Bloomsbury USA Books for Young Readers was established in 2002, and in 2005, Bloomsbury acquired Walker & Co, a small company dedicated to publishing nonfiction.^[3] The Walker brand was discontinued in 2015 and sold to Walker Publishing Company.^[4][5]

In December 2008, Bloomsbury opened a branch in Doha, Qatar in a joint-partnership with Qatar Foundation.^[6] The partnership created a publishing house, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing; it worked mainly with English and Arabic literature.^[7]

Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals (BQFJ), an open access and peer reviewed academic publisher, was created in December 2010 as a joint venture with Qatar Foundation. Journal research articles were published through BQFJ's website Qscience.com.^[8] The company's partnership with Qatar Foundation ended in December 2015 and all of Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing works were incorporated in Qatari-owned HBKU Press. At the time of BQFP's dissolution it had published over 200 books. BQFJ's works were also incorporated in HBKU Press.^[9]

In 2012, Bloomsbury established a publishing office in India.^[10] In May 2023, an article in The Verge reported that the cover of the UK edition of House of Earth and Blood, published by Bloomsbury, uses an AI-generated image.^[11]

In 2018, it was confirmed that much of the company's growth over the previous two decades was attributable to the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling.^[12]

Acquisitions and imprints

Among the companies, book lists and imprints that Bloomsbury has acquired are:^[13]

• Bloomsbury Academic (1986)
• A & C Black (2000)
• Whitaker's Almanack (2002)
• T & AD Poyser (2002)
• Thomas Reed Publications (2002)
• Peter Collin Publishing (2002)
• Andrew Brodie Publications (2003)
• Adlard Coles Nautical (2003)
• Walker Publishing Company (2004)
• Methuen Drama (2006)
• Berg Publishers (2008)
• John Wisden & Co (2008)
• Arden Shakespeare (2008)
• Tottel Publishing (2009)
• Bristol Classical Press (2010)
• Continuum International Publishing Group (2011)
• Absolute Press (2011)^[14]
• Fairchild Books (2012)
• Applied Visual Arts Publishing (2012)
• Hart Publishing (2013)
• Osprey Publishing (2014)
• I.B. Tauris (2018)
• Oberon Books (2019)
• Zed Books (2020)
• Red Globe Press (2021)
• Head of Zeus (2021)^[15]
• ABC-CLIO (2021).^[16]
• Lexington Books (2024)^[17]
• Applause Books (2024)^[17]
• Backbeat Books (2024)^[17]

See also

• List of largest UK book publishers
• Object Lessons

References

1. "Bloomsbury Publishing Board Appointment". London Stock Exchange. 16 June 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
2. "Annual Report 2023" (PDF). Bloomsbury Publishing. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
3. "About Us". Bloomsbury Publishing. Archived from the original on 31 January 2010. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
4. Milliot, Jim (17 March 2014). "Bloomsbury Consolidates Children's Imprints; Easton Leaving". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
5. Rosen, Judith (10 August 2017). "Candlewick to Publish Walker Books in U.S." PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
6. Harding, Sue-Ann (2014). "'But we don't read, Professor!' Translation, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, and building a 'vibrant literary culture'". Perspectives: Studies in Translatology. 22 (4): Abstract. doi:10.1080/0907676X.2014.948891. S2CID 60553880.
7. Flood, Alison; Ian Black (15 October 2008). "Publishers seek new talent in Arab world". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
8. ""مؤسسة قطر" تطلق المنبر الإلكتروني QScience.com لنشر الدوريات" (in Arabic). Al Wasat News. 25 December 2010. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
9. Eyre, Charlotte (22 December 2015). "Qatar's QF and Bloomsbury end partnership". The Bookseller. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
10. "Regulatory announcement". Archived from the original on 24 July 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
11. Weatherbed, Jess (15 May 2023). "Not even NYT bestsellers are safe from AI cover art". The verge.
12. "JK Rowling's Harry Potter fuels Bloomsbury profit rise". 23 October 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
13. "Corporate history – Corporate and Investor Relations – Bloomsbury.com". Archived from the original on 22 July 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
14. Neill, Graeme (1 September 2011). "Bloomsbury cooks up deal with Absolute Press". The Bookseller. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
15. Chandler, Mark; Wood, Heloise (2 June 2021). "Bloomsbury buys Head of Zeus in £8.5m deal". The Bookseller. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
16. Milliot, Jim (16 December 2021). "Bloomsbury Buys ABC-CLIO for $22.9Million". Publishers Weekly.
17. Milliot, Jim. "Bloomsbury Buys Rowman & Littlefield Academic Division for $83 Million". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 29 May 2024.

External links

• Bloomsbury Homepage
• Bloomsbury Investor relations website
• Bloomsbury Online Library Archived 25 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine