Future Publishing Sees Growth, But Yearly Loss

Officials from UK-based media company Future Publishing, which dominates the UK video game magazine market, and also has significant game magazine and website holdings elsewhere in the world, including Official Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer, and PSM magazine in North America, have announced the company's preliminary financial results for the year ended September 2005. Overall, Future saw an increase in revenue of 12 percent to £212.3 million ($365.4m), but an overall disappointing operating loss of £10.0 million ($17.2m) and a basic loss per share of 3.4p (5.9 cents) per share, though this was affected by a number of exceptional one-off costs, including office relocation and redundancies due to acquisitions. The mixed results illustrate a busy year for the company, which made a number of acquisitions, including the purchase of thirty-eight magazines, all non-game related from main UK rival Highbury House Communications. Profits from games magazines and websites could only remain steady through the year, compared to increases in other general entertainment magazines, though, with the company noting weakness in mainland European computing titles. Overall circulation over all magazines was up by 7 percent (1 percent, excluding acquisitions) and advertising revenue was up 21 percent (5 percent, excluding acquisitions). CEO Greg Ingham commented of the results: "The year to 30 September 2005 has been an important one for Future. Although the economic backdrop has been unhelpful, the Group has significantly grown the scale of its operations during the year. This provides the platform for the Group to develop its profits further over time. We are committed to building on our progress and to ensuring Future's continued growth through acquisitions and increased new product development spend on launches and internet expansion. He concluded: "Whilst we continue to take a cautious view on the near term outlook, trading in the first month of the new financial year is on track."