Future reorg: new boss streamlining firm as restructure begins

Future Publishing’s "business model isn’t working hard enough" according to new CEO Zillah Byng-Maddick.

In an email sent to staff, the new leader for the firm has started to detail her plan for the specialist publisher, famed for its games products and titles in the tech, entertainment and music markets.

A structural overhaul will see redundancies and a revamp.

The firm’s model "isn’t sustainable in the medium term and needs to change," she said, adding that Future was too "complicated and inward-looking".

Byng-Maddick’s plan includes a cut down management board into a "more streamlined leadership team" and a restructuring that means teams will no longer be structured ‘around content types like technology but instead a single content and marketing team will produce all content’, says Media Week.

Two separate consultations across the group will review its strategy and its staffing.

All staff will have a chance to contribute to the former, while "no part of the business will be unaffected" as the company looks at its resource.

Byng-Maddick told Media Week: "At its heart, Future is a great business, but its structure is too complicated. Our expert, trusted content enables us to attract large communities of highly engaged customers who want to buy things, and that’s exceptionally appealing to our clients.

"We’re planning to refocus and simplify our business around those two key stakeholders and that opportunity. We have a clear business model and strategic vision. And we’re starting the conversation about how to apply it with our people now. We’ll update our external stakeholders at our Interims at the end of the month."