Future bleak for print magazines at publisher

The closure or sale of some print magazines could be on the agenda for the games and technology magazines publisher Future after it warned it would miss profits targets.

Future’s shares crashed more than 12 per cent to 13.75p at the close of trading last night, as the company blamed “continuing weakness in the games market because of a lack of new console releases from Microsoft and Sony”.

Its chief executive, Mark Wood, admitted that “senior management and the board are not satisfied”, and vowed to slash “legacy print costs”.

Future still generates almost three-quarters of sales from print despite growth in digital.

Adjusted revenues rose 1 per cent in the last nine months to £76.2m. Digital “edition” revenues from the iPad and tablets soared 50 per cent.