MIN (May 30, 2005)
Brisbane-born Jonathan Simpson-Bint has led two magazine lives. First, as the founding publisher (1996) of Business 2.0, which soared to 3,745 ad pages in 2000, before the “dot.com” collapse that led to its 62.5 million sale to Time Inc. in April 2001. Then, with the rest of the Brisbane, Calif. based Future Network (Official Xbox, PC Gamer, PSM: 100% Independent PlayStation 2, Maximum PC, etc., and several purchased-in-2004 guitar magazines), he says he has made a profit for three straight years. Sign of the prosperity comes from Simpson-Bint and 17 other FN staffers participating in the June 6-through-12 Aids Lifecycle 3 bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Simpson-Bint has pledged to raise $150,000 to the 585-mile event’s $3 million overall goal, and has received a $50,000 commitment from Microsoft.
* Simpson-Bint tells min that the 18 FN riders represent 10% of the staff. “This counts as vacation time, but people on the job are donating some of theirs to the riders, so everybody will share,” he says. “In today’s world, with so many diffuse families, the company is the most binding social unit.”
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About The Future Network USA
Future Network USA (www.futurenetworkusa.com), is the country’s foremost publisher of cutting-edge gaming, action sports, computing and musician magazines which reach a passionate young, active, affluent male audience. Future Network USA is run by President Jonathan Simpson-Bint and ranks 13th out of the top 20 audited U.S. newsstand publishers in gross newsstand revenue. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Diego, Future Network USA’s publications sell in excess of 2.2 million copies per month. Its market-leading titles include PC Gamer, PSM: 100% Independent layStation 2 Magazine, Official Xbox Magazine, Mobile PC, Maximum PC, MacAddict, EZ Tech Guides and musician titles: Future Music (to launch April 2005), Guitar One, Guitar World, Guitar World Acoustic (bi-monthly), Guitar World Bass Guitar (bi-monthly) and Guitar World Legends (bi-monthly).
About The Future Network plc
The Future Network was founded in the UK in 1985. Today, it publishes over 90 special-interest consumer magazines worldwide, is the world’s leading publisher of games magazines and is the fifth largest magazine publisher in the UK. Future employs over 1,000 people in offices in the UK, US, Italy and France. Around 100 international editions of Future’s magazines are also published in 31 other countries across the world. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol FNET).