AI licensing lifts an academic publisher's year
Bloomsbury's results show its academic and professional division growing on the back of licensing content for AI, a year after its first such deal.
Picture made for ABUREAU.
In its results for the year to 28 February 2026, published on 20 May, Bloomsbury reported that revenue in its Academic and Professional division rose 29%, driven by AI licensing, and that the division's profit before tax and highlighted items doubled.
The publisher says it announced its first participation in AI licensing for academic content in July 2025, and expects licensing income to continue into the new financial year.
The pattern is now familiar from listed publishers: content gathered over decades for one purpose finds a second market in AI, and the income shows up quickly in the accounts. Academic and professional material is valued because it is accurate, edited and specialised, exactly the qualities that are scarce in what can be scraped from the open web.
