Johannes Gutenberg’s Bible may still be the most significant publishing phenomenon in history, but, as a commercial event, the impact of the Harry Potter series is hard to beat. More than 350 million books have been sold, and as the seven-part series approached its climax, each title sold better than the last.

Bloomsbury may have held the rights only in the UK and some other English-speaking countries outside America, but Deathly Hallows was enough to double its turnover, with many of the sales coming in the small hours after the book went on release.

Harry Potter helped the group’s transformation from a niche publisher into that rarity in a consolidating industry - a medium-sized independent. The difficulty, though, is whether Bloomsbury can keep it going. Backlist sales will be constant, but these will be only a fraction of a Harry Potter launch and, in any event, a publisher’s future is dependent on its front list - the new titles. There is a credible list of authors, but Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Margaret Atwood or Ben Schott cannot hope to match the level of sales.

Consumer publishing is a steady business and Bloomsbury’s only hope of achieving growth is by using its cash to buy authors or to make acquisitions, both of which are risky. So it is hardly surprising that the publisher is focusing on specialist publishing, the part of the business for which Nigel Newton, the long-serving chief executive, takes responsibility.

A lot of energy has been expended on an agreement to provide financial information in conjunction with the Qatari Financial Authority, which at least focuses on emerging markets. What is not clear is how much money Bloomsbury can make from the tie-up, which remains poorly understood by investors.

If Bloomsbury is to continue to impress the City, it will need to generate growth: to do that, it may need to embrace some less glamorous areas of publishing.

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