Future sees its revenues slide and warns that 2011 will be difficult
Magazine publisher Future posted a small rise in full-year profit yesterday but warned 2011 looks “anything but benign”.
The publisher of Official Xbox Magazine saw its adjusted profits rise nine per cent to £8.3m on revenue marginally down at £151.5m.
Chief executive Stevie Spring told City A.M. she was “a Gemini” about the results: “If you look at Future we have a fantastic story to tell, there are loads of reasons to be cheerful.
“But then I poke my head above ground and I see the Eurozone in meltdown, consumer confidence in the gutter, government cuts that have yet to really bite, high unemployment – it’s hard to be bullish with all that going on. I have a feeling 2011 is going to be anything but benign. There is a big chance of a double dip now.”
Future, whose special-interest magazines and websites range from computer games to cycling, said its US business returned to profitability after a cost cutting programme was taken to combat the slowdown in the US advertising market.
Future also reduced its net debt by more than half to £7.4m from a year earlier and raised its interim dividend by 22 per cent to 1.1p per share.