MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
April 1-15, 2004 Edition
Harry Potter Publisher
Bloomsbury Sees
Profits Soar 38 Percent
LONDON/03/25/04UK-based Bloomsbury Publishing, plc, publisher of the Harry Potter series, reported a pre-tax profit of £15.4m ($28.4m) for the year ending December 31, 2003, in line with expectations.
Higher profits were partly attributed to the successful hardback launch of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last June.
Bloomsbury plans to publish 15 new editions of existing Harry Potter titles this year. The company will release a new edition of the previous adventure Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in June this year as a Hollywood movie tie-in, and will publish a paperback edition of the Order of the Phoenix book in July.
Chairman Nigel Newton said the company expects continued strong cash generation through 2004. Overall sales of children’s books soared 37 percent but reference titles declined by about 2 percent.
