Mag publisher Future is so confident about its worth to “passionate” audiences, it’s launching a video magazine on PlayStation Network that will cost £0.99 an episode. FirstPlay goes live in the UK March and following elsewhere in Europe with HD reviews, previews and downloadable content. It also comes in an…

We said it at the time - a magazine targeting the millions gamers who already subscribe to World Of Warcraft was always likely to prove successful for Future. Today, the publisher says World Of Warcraft: The Magazine has exceeded its own subscription targets by 30 percent (although we don’t know…

—Spotify: The music-streaming site has revamped its recommendation engine and added a “related artists” tab. This will now use data collected from Spotify’s own users; previously it used data from AllMusic, which did not cover all of Spotify’s catalogue. (Spotify blog) —Tellylinks: A new service, Tellylinks - designed to send…

By Chris Tryhorn: Stevie Spring, the chief executive of publishing group Future, has today warned that there is “not a cat in hell’s chance” of making charging for general news content on the internet work. But for specialist titles, like those in Future’s stable, the web can bring opportunities for…

Stevie Spring’s magazine publisher Future saw its online ad revenue grow 10 percent to £10.6 million in the year to September 30, as it continued to diversify into online revenue streams despite what it calls “the toughest economic conditions in Future’s history.” London-listed Future increased the proportion of ad revenue…

Even if there wasn’t a recession this year, 2009 was always going to be a crunch year for B2B and consumer magazine publishers, given the pull of online media and social networking on their readers. So how have they fared? Awkwardly, publishers’ balance sheets show us…

UK magazine publisher Future is hiring ad sales house AdGent 007’s chief operating officer John Marcom Jr. as president of its U.S. business, in a bid to point its fortunes back in the right direction. The U.S. unit, which makes up 30 percent of group revenue, is expected to swing…

Bauer Media’s digital sales head Kurt Edwards is jumping over to be rival Future’s new digital commercial director, starting in December and reporting at a pretty high level, to COO Simon Wear.

Future Publishing (LSE: FUTR) is adding orcs, trolls and blood elves to its list of licensed magazine franchises. The Bath, England-based publisher is partnering with Blizzard Entertainment for World Of Warcraft: The Magazine, a quarterly available in English, French, German, and Spanish. Most interestingly, the 148-page title will be available…

I’d hate to say “death of print”, but the bright spots in Thursday’s magazine ABC circulation figures for H109 were few and far between: the report shows the industry sold and gave away 63.76 million copies in the half, which is 17.46 million fewer copies on average than in H208,…

London-listed magazine publisher Future enjoyed a 15 percent rise in online advertising revenue in the nine months to June 30, offsetting an eight percent drop in print advertising. While it isn’t releasing revenue or profit figures, only relative changes, it’s pleased as punch that online now contributes 22 percent of…

—BT: After an internal re-org the telco’s CTO Matt Bross has left the company and returned to the US, seven years after joining. As well as leading the 21CN network project, Bross was also CEO of BT’s Innovate division, which was merged with the Design division this month. BT (NYSE:…

You’re more likely to see paid-content additions like this than wholesale switches from free in consumer media. Future Publishing (LSE: FUTR) is adding a £3-a-month album club to its Classic Rock mag brand, letting readers read online album reviews and download advance accompanying copies, listenable during an exclusive one-week pre-release…

—BBC Comedy: ITV (LSE: ITV) Studios has made a five-part online comedy, Brian Pern, for the BBC’s website. The show is a video blog from fictional rock star Pern and is showing at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/comedy/ during July, though it’s really being seen as a multi-platform commission. —Future music: The mag publisher…

Future Publishing (LSE: FUTR) is adding PhotoRadar to its line-up of magazine portals, which includes BikeRadar, GamesRadar, MusicRadar and TechRadar. PhotoRadar will have an online editorial team with news and reviews, but will also take content from Digital Camera and PhotoPlus mags.

Specialist magazine publisher Future says it’s making “real progress” in developing its digital network and spent an extra £1.4 million in online publishing in the six months to March 31. Online now makes up 24 percent of the group’s total revenue, compared with 19 percent the same period last year…

Future Publishing’s digital commercial director Danny Ward-Lee died at his home in London last week, age 38. He joined Future in 2007 after six years with News International, where he was digital advertising manager for Times Online and, later, the wider news group. Before that, he was a long-time online…

—Future Publishing Outgoing ITN CEO Mark Wood has got a nice little non-executive director position on the magazine publisher’s board. John Mellon is standing down from the same position on the board in July. Chairman Roger Parry: He has an outstanding track record in the media that bridges both the…

—Future Publishing: Ahead of its October-to-March earnings on May 20, CEO Stevie Spring’s magazine publisher warned its US business will turn in a loss. It lost sales worth $1.5 million (£1 million) when a dispute amongst American wholesalers and news distributors caused it to lose 40 percent of sales there.…