Bath-based publishing group Future has crashed to a £19.3m annual loss as a result of a poor performance by its US printed magazines.
The group, which owns around 90 magazines including Total Film, Classic Rock and Fast Car, had made a profit of £5.5m in the previous year. Revenues for the year to the end of September fell by £9.8m to £141.7m.
While revenues from digital titles climbed by 31% to £16.2m, with a particularly strong performance in the UK, online products still account for only 11 % of total revenues.
The results come a month after chief executive Stevie Spring dramatically resigned in a major restructuring.
Future said it had put in place measures “to reduce scale of exposure and return US to profitability by 2013”. Among these are a dividend holiday under which shareholders will not receive any payments until 2013.
Future said that its UK operations had been resilient overall, with revenues falling just 2% to £103.4m.
Chief executive Mark Wood said: “Building on the digital success in the UK, we have taken steps to reorganise the company, merge UK and US operations and create a single global product line. These changes will enable us to operate more efficiently and return the US business to profitability. The changes will also mean that we can accelerate our transition to a digital business model and start to sell our entire range of digital content to high-value audiences in the US and other key markets.
“Digital channels such as the Apple iPad are rapidly opening up new routes to markets in which our niche products can quickly build a loyal following. Future's success on the Apple Newsstand, with more than six million downloads of our apps in a month, has demonstrated our ability to develop and deliver digital products at high speed, and underlines the global appeal of content ranging from Cycling, Games and Technology to Music, Film and Crafts. So, as a result, we look forward to the year ahead with confidence.”
Future cut around 100 UK jobs recently as part of its restructuring.
