Some 100 staff are to go from Future Publishing UK in the wake of a trading statement that showed group revenues down as pressures on print mount.
An internal memo to staff from Future Publishing's UK CEO Mark Wood has broken the news to staff today, MCV understands.
Around 10 per cent the UK's 1,000-strong workforce are to be made redundant. Initially, the firm is inviting staff to take voluntary redundancy - after that, roles will be removed via a consultancy period.
This morning the company said it would reduce headcount - the exact figure lost was not known until now. Future employs around 1,200 worldwide.
The news comes just hours after an nine-month interim management statement from the firm which said its US team was transitioning to a predominantly digital model, and also detailed group revenues down by five per cent year on year. UK circulation revenues for print titles were down three per cent.
Print remains challenged in the US, but Future insisted, however, that its digital transition is progressing well: in May 2011 UK digital revenues topped £1m for the very first time.
The message from Wood to UK staff also mentions "reviewing the future of some titles".
He adds that the company's shift is all about "sharing skills and resources".
Future is resolutely focusing on succesfully embracing digital content and publishing. Wood's note said that there is still "significant potential" in digital and other markets, but "challenging trading conditions in print" has triggered the decision to shrink the business.
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5 comments
Very sad to hear. Best wishes to those affected.
David Howard INDUSTRY
0 1Jul 15th 2011 at 3:46PM
Agreed. Best of the luck to all.
Ben Parfitt MCV STAFF
0 2Jul 15th 2011 at 8:25PM
And this, just after James Binns appeared on this week's Click to tell us about Battlefield versus Call of Duty, ^_^,
and Future are hiring for a new photography title at least(!).
Challenging trading conditions in print - I hear you(!). Working at a newsagents, I saw an example of sales efficiencies at one store at least. Broadly speaking I don't *believe* in a total transition though, even if Future deem growing digital as their best course of action presently, I believe print in general will still be around for ages. It's not videogames, but look at what Imagine have achieved with How It Works for instance.
I haven't had a chance to check out the interim statement yet, only read this post.
Andrew Mehta INDUSTRY
0 0Jul 17th 2011 at 1:20AM
You don't do paragraphs or line breaks in comments?
Testing using break html tag
*goes to see if it worked*
Andrew Mehta INDUSTRY
0 0Jul 17th 2011 at 1:22AM
Okay, break tags work. Will remember that in future.
Andrew Mehta INDUSTRY
0 0Jul 17th 2011 at 1:22AM