Bloomsbury returns to Harry Potter after 35% fall

Publisher Bloomsbury today unveiled new covers for all seven Harry Potter books in the hope of reviving interest in its biggest success story.

Chief executive Nigel Newton said the series was being re-released in November "for a new generation of readers who didn't grow up with the books".

Bloomsbury reported a 35% drop in pre-tax profits to £7.7 million in 2009 as it coped with recession and life without a new Harry Potter book.

Revenues slipped 12.7% to £87.2 million but it is boosting its full-year dividend to 4.43p.

Chief executive Nigel Newton maintained it was an "extremely robust" performance, with an "excellent" start to 2010 as Ben Macintyre's Second World War spy history Operation Mincemeat topped the bestseller list for four weeks.

Three film releases, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, Eat, Pray, Love and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, should also boost revenues.

Newton said print sales remain dominant but "the pace of sales through the Amazon Kindle and the Sony e-reader is really accelerating".

Bloomsbury's profits have more than halved since the 2007 release of the final Harry Potter hardback.

But Newton dismissed suggestions that the publisher is too reliant on author JK Rowling's boy wizard: "Emphatically, no."