Profits drop by almost half at Future Publishing
Digital business is profitable for first time, sales drop overall to £69m
Specialist magazine publisher Future has reported profits of £800,000 for the first half of its financial year, down from the £1.5 million for the same period in 2010.
Sales were down 4 per cent to £68.8 million compared to £71.4 million, as the company once again described trading as "challenging".
The publisher of Edge, GamesRadar and official Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation magazines said that ad sales in its games business were static in the UK and in the US ad sales for GamesRadar were up 31 per cent.
CEO Stevie Spring noted that the digital business became profitable for the first time this half.
"Trading in the first half was challenging, yet we've seen six months of an accelerating pace of change as the arrival of powerful mobile devices increases digital content consumption. The decline in profits includes maintained planned investment, particularly in digital, as we continue to transition our business for the future," she said.
"Our digitised content revenues grew 30 per cent in H1 and online now represents 34 per cent of our commercial advertising and, with a tenfold increase in digital edition sales, an increasing percentage of our consumer circulation revenues.
"Significantly, our digital activities were profitable for the first time this half."