Future plans to return £45 million to shareholders, despite a fall in profits.
The publisher, whose print and online media empire spans Country Lifeto Metal Hammer, said its sales had fallen by 3 per cent to £391.5 million in the six months to the end of March, from £405 million previously, with pre-tax profits 30 per cent lower at £46.6 million.
The FTSE 250 group had experienced a “tale of two advertising markets”, with improvements in the United States while Britain continued to be “challenged”, Jon Steinberg, 47, its chief executive, said. “I suspect that we’ve come out of it in the US and the UK will lag a bit behind.”
Jon Steinberg, chief executive of Future, whose publications reach one in two people in Britain
MATTHEW EISMAN/GETTY IMAGES
The announcement drove up the Bath-based company’s shares by almost a fifth, buoyed
