Bloomsbury Publishing

Content is king and, despite the competition from screens, the printed word goes from strength to strength and the book market grows every year.  Bloomsbury has published the Harry Potter series since the beginning and this is a highly valuable franchise, but there is more to the company than the Boy Wizard.

The Company’s Chief Executive talks about the “flywheel effect” of investing in high quality content which drives strong customer demand, generating cash to fund investment in authors, suitable acquisitions and attractive returns to shareholders.

In Consumer publishing, Bloomsbury has an excellent stable of popular authors who produce content which sells well and is often suitable for TV or film spin-offs. On the Academic side, artificial intelligence has brought new revenue opportunities.   

Governance and succession planning are likely to arise as a concern at Bloomsbury, given that the CEO has been in his role since the 1980s. We will also keep an eye on whether any non-executive directors are over-committed.

Cybersecurity is a growing risk, as data breaches could lead to theft of intellectual property and reputational harm for Bloomsbury and its authors.

The company does not appear to have committed to absolute “net zero by 2050” (or similar) across all emissions although it has detailed emissions reduction targets.