Future's digital sales via Apple Newsstand pass £5m

Magazine publisher Future Publishing has recorded sales of more than £5 million for its digital editions on Apple devices since the launch of Apple's Newsstand platform almost one year ago.

In a trading update, published today Future, which publishes Future Music, Total Film and T3, said "trading in the fourth quarter has been encouraging in both the UK and the US".

"This has reinforced our confidence that the full-year numbers for 2012 will be in line with our expectations and also give us a good trajectory into the next financial year."

The company's "progress towards a predominantly digital business continues", the publisher added.

Back in its half-year results in May, the publisher reported an increase of 37 per cent year-on-year in digital revenues, with sales on Apple's Newsstand platform exceeding £3 million, at the time reported to be reaching around £500,000 a month.

The publisher has claimed "huge success" of its titles on the Newsstand platform, last month receiving the 'launch of the year' award from the Association of Online Publishers.

And at the PPA Digital Publishing Awards on Wednesday night (26 September) Future was named 'digital publisher of the year for consumer media'.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk at the PPA digital publishing conference on Wednesday, editor-in-chief of digital editions Mike Goldsmith said the 65 Future titles available on Newsstand together record 150,000 sales every month, with more than 1.7 million sales since the launch of the platform.

He added that 40 per cent of those sales are for subscriptions. "That's brilliant", he said, "because it is offsetting that sad decline in print".

The latest consumer magazines report from the Audit Bureau of Circulation found Future Publishing's technology gadget magazine T3 recorded the highest digital circulation out of the audited titles, of more than 17,000 downloads of its tablet edition issues in the first half of this year.

In today's trading update Future adds that visits to its portfolio of websites grew by more than 50 per cent in 2010 "and now total more than 45 million unique users a month".

The company said that in its full year results, due to be published in November, it "will outline our plans to grow and monetise our global digital audiences, leverage our position as a global leader in tablet products and software and diversify Future's revenues further.

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).