Bloomsbury Interim Profit Falls as AI Licensing Shrinks

Half-year Adjusted Profit was £16.8 million, against £24.0 million, and consumer revenue fell to £102.8 million. AI licensing continued at a smaller amount. Two Sarah J. Maas novels are still ahead, and the interim dividend rises 5% to 4.28p.

What did Bloomsbury report for the six months to August 31, 2026? Revenue of £151.6 million and Adjusted Profit of £16.8 million, against £159.5 million and £24.0 million. Adjusted Profit is down 30%, by PT's calculation. Profit before taxation fell from £18.3 million to £9.3 million, down 49.2%, also by PT's calculation. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc announced the unaudited interim results on October 22, 2026. The results PDF carries the same table.

Nigel Newton, Executive Chairman, said Bloomsbury was "pleased to report first half revenue of £151.6m with profit of £16.8m and a strong start to the second half of the year, underpinning the Board's confidence in delivering record results for the full year." That profit figure is Adjusted Profit: profit before taxation and highlighted items. Those items were £7.5 million, up from £5.7 million. Amortisation of acquired intangibles was £4.3 million, against £4.5 million. One-off integration and restructuring costs were £3.2 million, against £1.2 million.

Where the money moved

Group revenue of £151.6 million is just under 5% below £159.5 million, by PT's calculation. The margin on Adjusted Profit was 11.1%. Net cash was £22.8 million, against £2.4 million: cash of £30.1 million and a term loan of £7.3 million. A further $10.0 million of the Rowman & Littlefield loan was repaid in the half, $27.5 million in all, leaving $10 million due in May 2027.

Consumer revenue was £102.8 million, against £113.4 million, down 9.3% by PT's calculation. Consumer Adjusted Profit was £9.8 million, against £13.4 million. The margin was 9.5%, against 11.8%, and would have been 11.6% excluding Special Interest. Sale processes have begun for Who's Who and Osprey Board Games. The company says it announced that decision earlier this year.

The second half is where the list is

In September, in the second half, Gillian Anderson's More and Stephen Graham's Letters to Our Sons became instant Sunday Times bestsellers. Newton said consumer growth "is weighted to the second half with scheduled releases from many of our bestselling authors." Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Splintered Harmony is due on October 27, 2026, and A Court of Forgotten Melody on January 12, 2027. He said HBO Max will launch J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series on Christmas Day. Bloomsbury is publishing a TV tie-in of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and major supermarkets and other non-traditional book retailers have ordered it.

AI licensing got smaller

Academic and Professional revenue rose 5.9%, Bloomsbury's figure, to £48.8 million from £46.1 million. Underlying growth, the release says, came in every territory and in both print and digital, once AI licensing is excluded. The non-exclusive agreement continued "to a lesser quantum," and that smaller amount led to a lower margin. Divisional Adjusted Profit was £6.8 million, against £11.0 million. The margin was 13.9%, against 23.9%. Profit before taxation was £2.8 million, against £6.8 million. The release does not state the licensing revenue in pounds. Newton said: "Bloomsbury continues to benefit from ongoing AI licensing revenue in 2026/27." Internal AI use increased, and the company rolled out Gemini Enterprise and agentic workflows.

What Bloomsbury said about the Anthropic fund

Bloomsbury says it will be a beneficiary of the Anthropic settlement, as a class member in Bartz et al. v. Anthropic PBC. The release says the U.S. District Court for the Northern District for California ruled that Anthropic faced liability for downloading pirated books to build and maintain a central library. On July 20, 2026 the court approved a settlement fund of $1.5 billion. Bloomsbury has submitted claims and is still working through the outcome. It does not say how large the claim is, when money would arrive, or how any payment would be shared with authors.

Earlier PT reporting says the administrator extended the co-claimant allocation window to 60 days and expects a first round on or before November 15, 2026, where claimants agree the split. The Authors Guild has asked publishers to share more of the settlement on some out-of-print titles and on books left out over a missed copyright registration. For another house's latest figures, see Lagardère's third-quarter publishing revenue.

A higher dividend, and a record year still ahead

The interim dividend is 4.28p, which Bloomsbury says is up 5% from 4.08p. It will be paid on November 27, 2026 to shareholders on the register on October 30. Newton tied the rise to the strong net cash position and to confidence in the outlook. Bloomsbury has raised the dividend every year for 31 years, since it floated in 1994. The board expects record results this year, in line with Adjusted Profit expectations. Consensus before this announcement, for the year ending February 28, 2027, is revenue of £354.3 million and Adjusted Profit of £49.9 million.

Why it matters for authors

What Bloomsbury points to next is Sarah J. Maas, on October 27 and January 12, and a Harry Potter tie-in at Christmas. AI licensing continues at a smaller amount the company has not published. The academic margin, 13.9% against 23.9%, is the figure it gave instead. Bloomsbury expects to benefit from the Anthropic settlement and has filed, without saying what authors would receive. The dividend rose while half-year profit fell, and the board is pointing at the full year.

Sources

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, October 22, 2026: Interim results announcement
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, October 22, 2026: Full interim results (PDF)