Profits rise at Future

A 13 per cent year-on-year increase in traffic is the headline figure to emerge from Future Publishing’s H2 fiscal results.

The media company reported a profit of 3.6m for the period – 13 per cent up on the same period the year before.

However, revenues fell seven per cent in the six months ending March 31st, with Future’s US operation suffering a 10 per cent drop and the UK office a three per cent drop – though both of these numbers are said to be ahead of the market average.

It feels like we’ve got reasons to be bullish about our position,” Future chief exec Stevie Spring said in a statement released to MediaWeek.

While it may be tempting fate to say that the worst is behind us, not least with so many continuing uncertainties at a macro-economic level, we are now seeing some notable improvements in trading patterns which we’re confident will benefit us in the second half.”

Future’s continued focus on online publishing is seemingly finally reaping rewards, too, with revenues from the company’s digital operations now account for 25 per cent of its total.

Significant growth in traffic to our online properties in the last 18 months is being turned into a push for real engagement with our ‘prosumer’ audiences online – increasing time spent on site, growing the number of forum users, Facebook and Twitter followers,” Spring added.