Holiday Gift Purchases For Its Leading Entertainment Magazines Accounted for A Quarter of the Total Orders
South San Francisco, Calif., February 3, 2010 – Future US, the special-interest media company, announced today that online orders for its magazines in the month of December 2009 climbed more than 29 percent versus the previous December. Three fourths of the subscribers are new or renewing readers (non-gift) while 24 percent are readers who took advantage of a 2-for-1-holiday gift program. At the peak of the holiday season, the Gaming Category, with four titles – “Official Xbox Magazine,” “PlayStation: The Official Magazine,” “Nintendo Power “and “PC Gamer” – was the top performing category, with 56 percent of total online orders recorded.
“It’s impressive that many of our readers chose to renew early and take advantage of our gift order programs, even in a down economy,” said Rich McCarthy, Director of Consumer Marketing. “We feel these strong holiday sales on our own sites, as well as sales on partner sites like Amazon, really validate our strategy of targeting enthusiast audiences with high quality content and products that speak directly to their interests.”
During the past year, Future US has made significant improvements to its online subscription order process. These changes include: additional functionality and, enhanced payment options, along with the elimination of free-trial issues which have increased the cash-with-order ratio across all titles. In addition, Future has integrated the subscription pages with the online Customer Care center at its fulfillment bureau CDS so readers can easily manage their subscriptions and get account information at anytime.
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About Future
Future plc is an international special-interest media group that is listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol FUTR). Founded in 1985 with one magazine, today we have operations in the UK, US and Australia creating over 180 special-interest publications, websites and events for people who are passionate about their interests. We hold strong multi-media market positions in games, technology, film, music, cycling, automotive and crafts. Our biggest-selling magazines include Total Film, T3, Classic Rock, Digital Camera, Guitar World, Revolver, Official Xbox Magazine, PlayStation: The Official Magazine, Nintendo Power, Maximum PC and Mac|Life. Our websites include gamesradar.com, bikeradar.com, techradar.com, musicradar.com, dailyradar.com and photoradar.com. Future produces nearly 4 million magazines each month; we attract more than 27 million unique visitors to our websites; and we host 27 annual live events that attract hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts. In addition, Future exports, syndicates or licenses its publications to 90 countries internationally, making us the UK’s number one exporter and licensor of monthly magazines.
Media Contact
Heather Sorensen, Plugged In PR for Future US
503-841-0625
Brigit Valencia, Plugged In PR for Future US
360-597-4516
