Rumours are currently abound that Pearson New Entertainment is planning to sell off its Future Publishing division. Although Pearson refused to provide any comment to Newsline, a number of speculative reports claim that Pearson have been in discussion with a number of potential buyers.
The market position of Future’s publications may provide clue as to just the potential buyer might be and what they would be looking for.
Although Future is a relatively small player in the consumer title market, taking only a 1.6% market share in the ABC audit for Jan-Jun 1997 (see table below), it does have a significant stake in the computing titles market.
Future Publishing Market Share Of All Consumer Press
| Publisher | Circulation | Market Share % | |
| 1 | IPC Weeklies Group | 6,182,937 | 13.1 |
| 2 | Redwood Publishing | 4,962,511 | 10.5 |
| 3 | BBC Magazines | 3,188,930 | 6.8 |
| 4 | SouthBank Publishing Group | 2,812,223 | 6 |
| 5 | National Magazine Company Limited | 2,154,691 | 4.6 |
| 6 | Emap Metro | 1,987,017 | 4.2 |
| 7 | Emap Elan Ltd | 1,737,547 | 3.7 |
| 8 | Readers Digest Association | 1,597,552 | 3.4 |
| 9 | BLA | 1,425,147 | 3 |
| 10 | IPC Magazines Specialist Group | 1,402,985 | 3 |
| 11 | DC Thomson & Co Ltd | 1,335,414 | 2.8 |
| 12 | G & J Publishing | 1,108,234 | 2.4 |
| 13 | Cable Guide Limited | 1,101,251 | 2.3 |
| 14 | Attic Futura | 949,938 | 2 |
| 15 | Saga Publishing | 833,486 | 1.8 |
| 16 | Conde Nast Publications Ltd | 745,587 | 1.6 |
| 17 | Future Publishing | 744,808 | 1.6 |
| 18 | Emap Apex Publications Ltd | 713,437 | 1.5 |
| 19 | Loot Enterprises Ltd | 608,547 | 1.3 |
| 20 | Emap Pursuit Publishing | 599,093 | 1.3 |
For a company interested in the overall consumer market, buying Future would secure only a small stake in the market. One area in which Future does have a leading stake, however, is computing titles. In consumer computing titles it leads the market with a 58.5% market share. This includes titles like PC Gamer , .Net and Gamesmaster. In the overall computing titles market (consumer and business) Future Publishing is a clear leader as can be seen in the chart below.
For a company interested in expanding its computing title interests then, Future would certainly be a promising prospect. In this area potential buyers might be Dennis, Emap Images, IDG or VNU Communications.
Although it has only a small interest in UK publications at present, Dutch company VNU has a sizeable financial backing and was a contender in the bidding for IPC magazines recently. The purchase of Future would increase VNU’s UK presence and give it dominance in the computing title market.
Pearson refused to comment on the speculations when contacted by Newsline.
