First Day Sales

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
23 June 2003


23 June 2003


          FIRST DAY'S SALES OF HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc announced today that sales for Harry Potter and the
Order of The Phoenix are in line with the Group's trading statement on Friday,
June 20. Sales of the new book have been considerable and, according to Nielsen
BookScan, the independent book trade monitoring service, first day sales in the
UK were 1,777,541 copies broken down as 1,598,285 copies of the children's
edition and 179,256 copies of the adult edition. Nielsen BookScan's comparable
total figure for first day sales for the previous title Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire on July 8, 2000 was 372,775.

Commenting Nigel Newton, Bloomsbury's Chairman, said:

'We have made a good start to the launch of the fifth and latest Harry Potter
book. Estimated sales to date are in line with our recent trading statement.'

The build up to the latest Harry Potter publication has already stimulated
increased demand in the other four books in the series, two (Harry Potter and
the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) of which have
gone back in to the Nielsen BookScan top 10 bestseller list, joining the
children's edition of Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix which is number
one this week and the adult edition of Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix
which is number two.


                                   Ends



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