West-Country-based magazine publisher Future is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The company that started with a single computer magazine produced on a kitchen table recently completed the takeover of fellow specialist publisher Highbury House - a deal worth £96.5m, including debt. The company will now leapfrog the BBC to become the third-largest magazine publisher in the UK, with total magazine sales of £145m a year, and the second-largest specialist publisher. The company's name was also simplified, changing from Future Networks to simply Future.
The Future chief executive Greg Ingham purrs with pleasure at the very thought of getting his hands on Highbury's 68 monthly consumer magazines, which include Patchwork, Fast Car, XBM, X-Box World, PC Gamer, MacAddict to Total Guitar, Mountain Biking and Redline. Now the company will be adding a genealogy-related magazine.
Scrapbook Answers will be a new publication devoted to helping people create better scrapbooks of their lives - both paper and digital. "Scrapbooking is huge in the States post-9/11. Its about reality, people wishing to control and record their own lives," says Ingham. The British edition will launch in June, with the US version out in September.
The company's web site may be found at http://www.futureplc.com/future although I could not find any mention there of Scrapbook Answers yet.
I have been scrapbooking the family stories for years and have gone digital. It is a great way to share with family members not interested in the details but like the photos and pictures of old related documents.
I am glad others see the value of combining the two hobbies.
Posted by: Marcia Loudon | April 04, 2005 at 10:25 PM