POV: date=August 2008

Future plc (LSE: FUTR) is an international special-interest media company jointly based in Bath and London. The brand produces magazines, websites and events in a range of specialist sectors including games, technology, automotive, cycling, films and photography. It publishes more than 100 magazines and attracts over 11 million unique users to its websites.

History

Future Publishing was created in 1985 by an unemployed computer journalist, Chris Anderson, working with two colleagues from his house in Somerton, Somerset, England. It began with the publication of Amstrad Action magazine, followed by further titles, including 8000 Plus (for the Amstrad PCW) and PC Plus (for PCs).

Future enjoyed considerable success by developing specialist magazines targeted at enthusiasts, with both the writers and readers sharing the same commitment and knowledge of the subject matter. This approach hit its zenith with cult gaming title Amiga Power, a magazine that cheerfully attacked its own advertisers and other magazines within Future. Regrettably, if unsurprisingly, this style was not duplicated in other titles, but the company has remained focused on producing specialist titles for narrow audience segments.

Founder Chris Anderson sold his majority stake in the company in 1994, moving to San Francisco to develop GP Publications, a small US magazine company bought by Future in 1993. Future was bought by Pearson New Entertainment Europe. Several successful titles were launched in the following years including Total Film and Playstation: The Official Magazine - the company's biggest success story, becoming the third best-selling men's magazine in the UK - but Pearson struggled to achieve its goals and in 1998 was put up for sale. The company at that time comprised of Future and French publisher Edicorp, both of which were acquired in a management buyout by the Future board. Chris Anderson backed the buyout and returned as non-executive chairman.

Ensuing success

The company expanded rapidly, opening offices or buying existing companies in Germany, Italy and Poland. It entered the US market with the purchase of Imagine Media - the renamed company Anderson developed when he first left Future.

Due to its specialisation in computing and internet titles, the company was an enthusiastic adopter of internet publishing during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, launching numerous websites based around its magazine titles and online-focused magazines such as Internet Works, Business 2.0, and the world's first email magazine Future Gamer. Buoyed by its association with the internet and computing, the company floated on the Stock Exchange in 2000 and the share price rocketed to around £9. The success did not last, with share price and profits crashing as the dot-com bubble burst. The company avoided bankruptcy by a rights issue, large-scale redundancies, the sale of Business 2.0 to AOL Time Warner and the sale or closure of its offices in Germany and Poland.