Future invests online with focus on digital-only briefs

The company, which publishes Total Film, announced its return to profit last week, with six month results to 31 March showing a pre-tax profit of £8.6m, and the appointment of internet entrepreneur Seb Bishop to its board.

Chief executive Stevie Spring said the majority of the £5.7m investment planned for the next year would go online, on new launches and beefing up existing products.

She said: "Are we going to have online-only products? Yes." But she added that she "did not recognise" the term "digital-only magazine".

Spring ruled out launching a general consumer magazine, as had been mooted before she took the helm a year ago - saying that the company should stick to specialist titles.

"We are looking at growth everywhere - organic, online, in customer publishing. If there are sensible acquisitions, we will be on top of it. The general interest magazine was (planned) under the previous strategy, our strategy is to stick to what we are good at, stick to niche," she said.

The company's results, released last Wednesday, showed online advertising revenue up 66% year on year, and revenues from customer publishing up 59% year on year.

The company has reduced its debt from £38.3m to £29.1m.

This article was first published on Media Week