Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury expands into the Middle East
Publishing group Bloomsbury is expanding into Qatar in £7.55m six-year deal that will reduce its reliance on revenues from the Harry Potter series.

By Rowena Mason writing in The Daily Telegraph, 15 Oct 2008

Bloomsbury Publishing, the London-based company, which took over fashion publisher Berg last month, has agreed to launch its first overseas operation outside the UK and US in order to "promote reading culture in the Middle East".

The Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing will sell books in both Arabic and English focusing on fiction and non-fiction for adults, educational books for schools, university text books, Arabic literature and reference books.
The new publishing arm will be owned by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community, with the books published around the world through Bloomsbury's distribution network.
Bloomsbury's share price rose 1.5 – or 1pc – to 173.5p following the trading update predicting full-year profits "in line with management expectations"

Bloomsbury chief executive Nigel Newton said long-term contracts and licensing deals meant the group would have steady cash-flow for at least the next 18 months.
"Whilst the impact of the credit crisis will be far reaching in the global economy over the coming months, the group nevertheless has a strong publishing programme in the lead up to Christmas," he said. "We are confident that books will continue to be in demand."
He added that the low retail price of books would help the group ride out the current economic downturn.
Bloomsbury launched an academic division last month focusing on titles in humanities and social sciences, which aims to publish fifty new titles online and in print by the end of next year.
Bloomsbury Academic titles will be made available free of charge online as a showcase to libraries, institutions academics and students.