Future reports rising turnover in first half

Magazine publisher Future Network has announced its interim results for the first half of 2004, showing a rise in both circulation and advertising revenues and continued growth of its share of the games magazine market.

Turnover for the six month period was UKP 87.1 million, up eight per cent on the previous year, with the biggest growth being from advertising revenue, which was up 14 per cent compared with 7 per cent growth in circulation revenue.

The firm recorded a pre-tax loss of UKP 1.2 million during the half, reversing a pre-tax profit of UKP 1.1 million in the same period last year, but this included a significantly higher rate of goodwill amortisation.

Adjusting the figures to discount the goodwill shows a pre-tax profit of UKP 7.2 million, representing healthy growth of nine per cent over the previous year's adjusted profit figure.

Future's share of the games magazine market also continued to grow through the period, and the company now accounts for 70 per cent of the market by units, or 73 per cent by value, compared with figures of 65 and 68 per cent respectively last year.

Those figures are not thought to take into account the firm's recent acquisition of PC Zone and Computer & Video Games from Dennis publishing, with the addition of PC Zone to the portfolio and closure of C&VG both likely to positively impact Future's market share.