FHM and Heat publisher Bauer Consumer Media saw its profits fall slightly to £36 million for the nine months to December 31 2008, reflecting a fall in circulation and advertising across the UK magazine industry. But the company promises to invest in digital publishing to offset print losses in future.
According to documents filed at Companies House, the company — formerly part of Emap but now owned by the German-based Bauer Media Group — will focus on “migrating existing brands to digital platforms” while “increasing the company’s digital reach and capabilities”. The company made revenues of £210.8 million in the same period.
Year on year comparisons are made difficult by a recent switch in the company’s reporting period to match its German parent, though a Bauer spokesman says the profits show a “slight decline” on the same period last year (via Media Week). For the 12 months to March 31, its last published accounts, Bauer made profits of £94.5 million on revenue of £313.1 million.
These are some healthy figures — especially compared to the on-going woes of the national and regional newspaper biz — but they are from 11 months ago and the consumer magazine industry is hardly immune from the financial pressures of readers wandering to new media. Bauer was forced to close its Arena men’s mag in April and the document mentions a “softening” of ad revenue in its men’s and car titles.
With total UK mag sales down by more than a fifth in the first half of 2009 and ad sales still falling, it would be optimistic to say there won’t be a few more mag casualties in the months to come.
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