Future, the specialist publisher, is expecting the success of new games consoles such as the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation3 to boost profits in 2008 as it announced that Stevie Spring, its new chief executive, had put it back in the black.

The group, which publishes magazines from Total Film to the official PlayStation titles, claimed to be “back on track” yesterday after reversing substantial losses last year to report pretax profits of £9.2 million.

The Bath-based publisher came under fire from shareholders last year after posting losses of £36.7 million from its operations, which included more than 100 consumer magazines and online properties.

Future said that profits in the year ending on September 30 had been boosted by online advertising, which was up 50 per cent to comprise 14 per cent of advertising revenues. With the launch of new games consoles in the period, online games advertising was up 55 per cent at 28 per cent of total games advertising. Ms Spring plans to invest a further £5 million in online investment next year.

The group’s most established web property, gamesradar.com, doubled revenues in the United States year-on-year. Future claimed that GamesRadar’s monthly audience was now bigger than FHM.com, NME.com, Nuts.co.uk and Zoo.co.uk combined. A 59 per cent boost to revenues in the customer publishing division, which includes titles such as the Sky Movies magazine, also contributed.

Future has secured the licence to publish official magazines for both Nintendo and Sony in the US market, making it the official publishing partner for all three global console manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic. Future’s revenues fell by more than £20 million year-on-year to £165.7 million.

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