Future appoints new MD and greenlights consumer title

by Jules Grant,, Brand Republic 16-Mar-04, 11:00

LONDON - Future Publishing has appointed Robert Price as its UK managing director following Colin Morrison's departure in December and said it is to launch a new consumer magazine with retailer Game.

Price is currently publishing director of the entertainment and games divisions and has been with Future since 1998. He was previously publisher before being promoted to group publisher of the games division and publishing director of the entertainment division.

Prior to Future, Price was head of marketing for Pearson New Entertainment Video.

He takes over from Morrsion who left in December. It is understood that Morrison has now taken up a position at Australian publisher ACP, which is behind the Australian editions of Cosmopolitan and Harpers Bazaar. In the interim, the post was overseen by Future Network chief executive Greg Ingham.

"This is a very well-deserved promotion and Future Publishing is in very good hands," Ingham said.

Separately Game, Europe's largest specialist games retailer, is to tie up with Future to launch a consumer magazine for mainstream gamers, targeting new customers who have bought into the games market over the last 18 months.

The Game Mag is a joint initiative between Game and Future Plus, the customer publishing and creative solutions arm of Future Publishing. The first edition of the magazine, which will favour a compact size to make it more identifiable on the shelf, will feature exclusive articles and commentary plus reviews of new games due to be released in coming months.

Advertising for the first issue has been entirely sold out to games publishers. Game and Future claim that the hope that subsequent editions will also feature advertising from FMCG and other brands keen to target the 20-plus market.

The first issue is available from April, priced £1.99, in Games stores in the UK.

Games marketing director Anna Macario said: "We know from our millions of reward card members that the UK games market has a more varied range of customers than ever before. It is now very much a mass market."

More than 3.7m new games consoles were sold in the UK in 2003 and there are now more than 15.45m games machines in British homes, according to Charttrack.

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