Future Publishing and monopolies
I like Future Publishing I really do. Over the years they have developed a stable of innovative and dynamic magazines. They have also helped pay my mortgage too and I do recall at one time writing for six of their publications in the space of a week.
I’ll even forgive them for launching against us in the girl's gadget space.
What I do find unbelievable now though is that in the consumer electronics magazine space in the UK they have a virtual monopoly. Cast your minds back to when they bid for Highbury Publications in 2005. One of the reasons the deal nearly stalled was because the Office of Fair Trading felt that if it went through Future would have a near monopoly in the games magazine market. The games mags were then taken out of the package and Future went on to snap up Highbury.
The arrival of the old rump of WV titles, which are staffed by some very talented and knowledgeable journalists, then gave Future a formidable stable of CE magazines. The result is that the company now has a virtual monopoly in the consumer electronics magazine arena. Apart from two mags at Haymarket and some smaller players, when it comes to AV, gadgets and TVs if you want to buy a magazine it will be a Future one. Surely there is something wrong when on press trips representatives from Future and their freelancers massively outnumber everyone else?
Given that Future has websites up against us it is becoming increasingly hard to find a freelance consumer electronics writer to work for us that doesn’t get at least half of their salary from the company. I just find it bizarre that the company were able to absorb all those tiles and that the OFT did nothing.
At least in the online space, and that’s where it really matters now, they have competition here, here and here. Unless of course they snap then up too. Btw hilariously if you type Future Highbury Games into Google you get Games Digest’s story…
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