Consumer magazine publisher Future has reported a dip in print advertising over the past nine months – but said today that growing online revenue and signs of an improvement in magazine sales had “more than offset” the decline.
In a trading update covering the nine months to the end of June, the Total Film and Playstation Magazine publisher posted a below-inflation rise in revenue – up one per cent on the same period last year on a like-for-like basis.
Circulation revenues remained flat but have begun to pick up between April and June, the company said.
Print advertising fell two per cent year on year, but online – which now makes up around a fifth of Future’s advertising revenue – rose 38 per cent. Overall, advertising revenue in the nine months rose four per cent year on year.
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Future claimed 11 million monthly unique visitors to its portfolio of websites, including gamesradar.com and bikeradar.com, but this figure does not take into account the effect of people visiting more than one site.
The publisher said it had made “milestone progress” in its digital strategy and had developed new technology that would allow “advanced aggregation” of content across a number of its websites – a system it plans to implement within the next two years.
Future’s chief executive, Stevie Spring, said: “We have continued to make good progress during the third quarter of our financial year – particularly in digital development.
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“While the market remains tough, Future is proving resilient and we remain firmly on track for a satisfactory outturn for the full year.”
Future derives 71 per cent of its revenue from Britain, with the remaining 29 per cent coming from the US. The company is due to publish its full-year results on 26 November.
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