Future Publishing issues £3.5 million profit warning

Blaming poor performance in both advertising and newsstand sales, Future Publishing has issued its third profit warning this year.

In a statement from the publisher, the company said, "continued weakness in both advertising and newstand have led the board to reduce its profit expectations. Profit for the current financial year to 30 September 2006 is now considered likely to be approximately £3.5 million below current market expectations."

The statement went on to admit that, "the trading outlook remains challenging," while shares in the company fell almost 7 per cent yesterday, to 31 pence.

The warning comes after the recent round of ABC figures showed that the UK games magazine sector is in continuing decline, as even officially branded titles suffered from falling readerships.