Future: Specialist print media holding up better than lifestyle

Future Publishing director James Binns has played down the slump in circulation figures experienced by its games portfolio in 2009, saying that specialist media is struggling less than other sectors.

"The most interesting thing that we discovered today that we didn't know is our position versus a bunch of men's lifestyle magazines," said Binns, following the publishing of annual ABC sales data earlier today. "Year-on-year comparisons for Zoo, Nuts, FHM, Bizarre and Loaded are all ferocious - they're a lot worse than almost all of our mags. The number one thing we've always said is specialist media is less likely to struggle than other media."

Future's games portfolio saw circulations drop across every one of its titles, except Edge. Notably, both of the publisher's Nintendo magazines, Official Nintendo and N-Gamer were down, by 12.8 per cent and 29.8 per cent respectively.

Former Dennis publication PC Zone dropped by 40.3 per cent and GamesMaster was down 16.2 per cent.

But according to Binns, these figures are respectable in the context of both the overall magazine market and the games one.

"Edge is now almost half as big again as GamesTM. GamesTM dropped [by 7.7 per cent] and Edge grew a little. GamesMaster is down - and the reason is really because they haven't yet found the audience that used to exist when the PlayStation 2 was a mass market console.

"GamesMaster is still the biggest unofficial games mag in the country, Edge is number two. OXM is still bigger than its entire competition - that's a pretty good market leader position to be in we think."

Future's official PlayStation 3 magazine also experienced a dip in sales accounting for 12.3 per cent, contrasting with the performance of the console itself, sales of which picked up significantly in the latter part of 2009.

However, Binns said that despite losing ground year-on-year, he was confident its PlayStation brand would grow in 2010.

"I believe that, with the work we're doing around our PlayStation brand, to make it a digitally more mature thing, next year our Official PlayStation Magazine audience will be a lot bigger.

"Some of that will be the magazine - and I'm not going to speculate on whether the mag's going to go up or down because there's lots of consumer choices I've got to worry about there. But our total reach across web and print and on console will be impressive. Next year our Official PlayStation business will reach more consumers than it has in the last decade.

"Magazines have an authority which is exceptionally strong. If you look online today, all over the internet you'll see God of War III gets 9 in Official PlayStation Magazine. That reach that the Official PlayStation mag brand has is much more significant than just looking at a print sales number."

Future Publishing would also exploit further the reach of mediums other than print going forward, said Binns.

On the subject of offering content on devices such as iPad, he said: "People will be able to access our websites with iPad and that's the most obvious start point. We're looking at what we do on iPhone as a start point rather than chasing iPad, which is a little while off - I think iPhone is, for me, more exciting right now.

"There are digital magazine distribution platforms such as Zinio, which some of our mags are on. I've seen some very exciting demos of mag platforms on iPad, like everyone else has seen. I think all magazine publishers are looking at it - it's a nice way to consume linear magazine content. But, above that, our mission is to grow our web audience. If I'm looking at digital, the number one priority is to grow web audience, number two is on-console media, then other mobile platforms, and iPad after that."

"I'm happy with the current shape of our [games] portfolio," he added. "We like being market leader with a strong second in every market, and we've got that.

"Everyone in business now is looking at how to control costs and we're exceptionally careful to make sure the money we're spending has the best impact on our audiences. The key is not taking anything for granted. We have to work closer than ever with our partners. There are fewer games, and that means what we have to do with every game is create really leading solutions across multiple media."