Rapidly expanding Bath media group Future is to open a new content hub in the US as it looks to build on its growth in what has become its number one market over the past few years.
Future has developed as a major force in the US publishing industry through a raft of strategic acquisitions valued at around £1.4bn.
It is now looking to grow its readership there, where its content reaches one in three adults
The firm, whose content reaches more than one in three adults online in the US, plans to get that figure closer to the one-in-two it has in the UK.
Future’s recent acquisitions in the US have included the country’s version of fashion and beauty publication Marie Claire, 10 titles from Dennis Publishing – which it snapped up for £300m – including MoneyWeek and The Week US, and TV and film destination CinemaBlend, which it bought for an undisclosed sum.
In 2018 it paid £100m for the B2C (business-to-consumer) arm of leading US digital media publisher Purch, which added popular US tech and science platforms such as Tom’s Guide, Tom’s Hardware, Space.com and Live Science to Future’s portfolio.
It also paid £37.2m for SmartBrief, the Washington DC-headquartered digital media publisher.
Future said the Atlanta hub would focus on video content – a huge growth market for the group – along with some editorial and sales roles.
In a webinar for investors staged this week Future outlined a major push into video advertising, which can generate four times the yield of display advertisements.
Future CEO Zillah Byng-Thorne, pictured, said: “Just 10 years ago, we were announcing that we would be back in profit in the US.
“Now we’ve a market capitalisation there of £4bn. We have huge plans for the States and following some key acquisitions, this new hub puts us in position to capitalise on them.
“We were the number one destination for tech content towards the end of last year. We want to repeat that success across women’s lifestyle, B2B and video.
“Atlanta is a thriving media hub, where creators are pushing the boundaries in what they produce. “We want to be where the talent is so that we can continue to deliver original content, expertly produced to our global audiences.”
In a trading update Future, whose UK brands range from TechRadar, PC Gamer and MoneyWeek to Country Life and the Go Compare comparrison website.said this week it was benefitting from ongoing momentum in digital advertising, which was more than offsetting the exceptional year-on-year comparators in audience and eCommerce.
The update, covering the four-month period to the end of last month, said group performance in the period had been in line with expectations with good conversion to profit and cash, despite continued macro uncertainties and inflationary pressures.
Full-year results were expected to be in line with the board’s expectations, it added.
Ms Byng-Thorne added: “Good momentum in digital advertising is being driven by the strength of our trusted content which continues to attract a high value audience making us a partner of choice for advertisers.
“Our diversified strategy positions us well to continue our strong growth momentum and we are pleased to reiterate our recently upgraded guidance for the full year.”
