Bloomsbury buys reference publisher
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Bloomsbury Publishing yesterday showed that there was more to its business than its Harry Potter books, with an acquisition to boost its reference list.
The company bought Peter Collin Publishing, a producer of dictionaries, for £860,000. Peter Collin, a private company founded in 1985, puts out a range of specialist and bilingual dictionaries, including the UK's best-selling crossword reference title, Bradford's Crossword Dictionary. It publishes more than 130 subject dictionaries and language titles that are used by students, translators and professionals.
The business is not related to the Collins family of dictionaries that are published by New Corporation's Harper Collins division.
Bloomsbury's chief executive, Nigel Newton, commented: "This acquisition extends the range of our reference content and demonstrates Bloomsbury's commitment to growing its sources of high-quality repeat revenues."
In 2000, Bloomsbury bought the reference publisher A&C Black, the company behind Who's Who, for £16m. Bloomsbury publishes the EnCarta dictionaries and recently bought Whitaker's Almanack. Since 1996 Bloomsbury Reference has created more than 25 million words of dictionary and reference content.
Bloombury will report interim results today and later this week it will release its latest reference work, Business: The Ultimate Resource, which is billed as a "one-stop reference source for everyone at work".
Mr Newton said: "The acquisition will help us achieve our aim of increasing our presence in the reference markets both in the UK and in the US."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments